Madan Padaki is a purpose-driven entrepreneur dedicated to empowering youth through education, entrepreneurship and AI with a vision to transform the lives of 10 million young people. With over 25 years of building institutions at the intersection of grassroots impact and scalable innovation, he has conceptualised the term Rubanomics as a development framework that treats the rural-urban corridor as a unified, interdependent economic and social ecosystem — where prosperity flows both ways by leveraging the power of aspirations, youth potential, entrepreneurial spirit and technology
He co-founded MeritTrac in 2000 — India's first large-scale skills assessment firm, later acquired by Manipal Education in 2011 — and has since channelled that entrepreneurial energy entirely toward social and ecosystem impact. He then embarked on a journey as the Co-Founder and Managing Trustee of Head Held High Foundation, a non-profit that dramatically transforms rural youth into capable, confident professionals and entrepreneurs — with 2000,000+ youth and their families impacted to date. He is also Co-Founder of the Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME), igniting a mass entrepreneurship movement across India, and Founder of 1Bridge, a rural supply chain and logistics firm serving 20,000+ villages. As Founder of JAN AI, he is bringing the transformative power of artificial intelligence to India's villages and underserved communities. He has also launched the Rubanomics Global Forum, a collaborative creating new socio-economic models where human potential, entrepreneurial spirit, and AI converge into a world of abundance and infinite possibilities.
As Immediate Past President of TiE Bangalore and a Member of TiE's Global Board of Trustees, he engages deeply with India's startup and deeptech ecosystem including working with several State and Central Government initiatives. Since 2020, he is an invited Guest Faculty at LBS National Academy of Administration (Mussoorie) to train all incoming Officers of Indian Civil Services on rural youth and entrepreneurship. He was also highlighted for his pioneering work by the Hon. Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi in his Mann ki Baat address to the nation in May 2022. Madan has been recognised by Forbes as a leading Tech for Good Philanthropist, named Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2021, and is an Honorary Doctorate recipient.
