28-yr-old entrepreneur Utkarsh Kishore is a man on the mission. His mission is to bring more jobs to his home state Bihar so that the migrant workers, who are forced to leave their homes and families behind in search of livelihood, can stay back and earn their living with dignity.

Utkarsh was deeply disturbed by the visuals presented in the aftermath of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, where one saw thousands of migrant workers, with women and children in tow, walking hundreds of miles to reach back home when everything was under lockdown. This development strengthened his resolve to bring social change at the ground level in Bihar. But the seeds of being a socio-entrepreneur were sown in Utkarsh’s mind right at home.

With a father who is a civil servant and a mother associated with several NGOs in Bihar, Utkarsh was inspired in the true sense of the saying, “Charity begins at home.”

This was also the reason why, during his graduation days at Delhi University, Utkarsh was known for being a go-getter student leader who could motivate his fellow students to realize their dreams, like working in the Civil Services.

His own dream was to change the socio-economic milieu and that inspired him to start an automobile modification unit in Patna, known as Cosmo Drive Pvt. Ltd. As a Director of this unit, he ensured that he gave jobs to migrant workers who had lost their jobs for different reasons. Apart from that, Utkarsh, an MBA from the prestigious Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, also owns a unique social experiment initiative “TeamUK” of which he is also the founder.

Talking about TeamUK, Utkarsh says with pride, “My mission is to provide jobs, not charity, because a family needs to learn to stand on its own two feet, which is the only way to build a nation stronger. Financial security can help families sustain better, educate their children, and create noble citizens for the future and live with dignity.”

This thought guides Utkarsh on his mission to create more and more job opportunities for skilled and qualified Bihari youth.

An active participant in several social welfare events across the country, Utkarsh represents his state on issues related to the upliftment of the poor, especially women and children. To carry on this mission, he was also invited to be a part of the State team led by the Minister of Social Welfare in Bihar at the 2-day National Conference organised by the Central Ministry of Women and Child Development.

For his contribution to several social welfare campaigns and his mission to provide jobs to youth in Bihar, Utkarsh was recently given the state honour of “Bihar Gaurav Sammaan” too. As a young socio-entrepreneur and philanthropist, Utkarsh also networks with Bihar’s leading personalities to ensure the fulfilment of his mission of social upliftment.