Madan Padaki is the founder and CEO of 1Bridge, a village-commerce network focused on delivering digital services and products to rural India, bridging gaps in access, choice, and convenience. He is also a co-founder of the Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME) — a mission-driven alliance that brings together government, business and civil society to ignite a mass entrepreneurship movement across India. In his advisory capacity, he currently serves as a Strategy Advisor to UNICEF India for the YuWaah initiative, supporting youth empowerment and transitions to productive work.

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A serial entrepreneur, Madan co-founded MeritTrac, India’s first large-scale skills-assessment company, which was acquired by Manipal Education. Over time, his work has spanned rural livelihoods, education, youth transformation, and social innovation. His leadership is rooted in blending impact and scalability — from grassroots rural commerce to systemic entrepreneurship ecosystems. Madan’s educational background includes an engineering degree from the National Institute of Engineering (NIE), Mysore, and an MBA from SPJIMR, Mumbai. He also co-founded Sylvant Advisors, which supports education-sector entrepreneurs through strategy, investment, and scaling

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