[Super Student] Ketav Mehta - a young maverick, who is also a student

In the course of writing and searching for super students, I have interacted with some quality people who are playing their part to improve the future of our country. The candidate for this week is yet another super guy who has achieved more than a bunch of things in his college life. Even as I was interacting with him, I was not sure if a single article could justify all that he has done, and what do you know, I was right after all.

The desire to startupKetav Mehta is a final year student from IIT Bombay pursuing his integrated B.Tech-M.Tech Dual Degree Program in Energy Science and Engineering. He was also the Media and PR head at Mood Indigo 2011, which is Asia’s Largest Inter College Festival and currently heads MTV’s youth marketing team.

While in college, Ketav has organised and managed a whole range of events at IIT B and admits things gathered pace once he got admitted into this elite institution. “IIT B exposed me to many different things, apart from normal studies. Students are given so many resources, opportunities, amazing facilities to actually build and work on things that intrigue them,” he says.

He attributes some of this inert desire to turn businessman to his roots of being a Gujarati. He is sure that in the future he would definitely like to see himself as a head of some company. And following on this path, Ketav has already taken his first few steps. Ketav’s project Automate was part of the prestigious Google-MIT startup accelerator program, where his idea was selected among top three startups at the program.

The birth of Automate

Ketav along with three friends, Dhruvin Mehta, Manas Chaudhari and Priyansh Tiwari has built Automate, a technology based startup which provides users a platform to locate and book auto rickshaws that are willing to go to the user’s destination. Automate harnesses GPS enabled technology and targets both passengers and drivers. Automate helps commuters by reducing waiting times and eliminating rejection of fares by Auto Rickshaw drivers. Drivers are benefitted in the form of increased revenue through reduction in idle time, supplementary sources of revenue and are also offered a variety of social security benefits like pension. “For an average Mumbaikar, the time spent looking for an auto rickshaw is quite high and our app will be beneficial for both the parties,” he says. By using Automate, Ketav says auto rickshaw drivers will be socially and financially empowered.

Ketav was also a Student Mentor at IIT, where he supported and motivated economically backward students. He is presently a teaching assistant for Energy Economics Resources and Environment course.

In the academic area, Ketav has filed a patent for portable spectrometer using an innovative variable band-pass filter based technology (see what is spectrometer).He has already completed the required number of courses for obtaining his M.Tech degree a year in advance.

Organising Mood Indigo

Mood Indigo was one of many things that Ketav actively worked for. He was a Core Group Member heading Media and Public Relations for the festival. He enthusiastically shares his story of leading a 60 member student team to organizing India’s first ever Twitter meet and interview. “This twitter meet that we created was first of its kind and back in 2011 nobody else had conducted such concept on such a large scale. We received a lot of press attention and it was trending nationally,” claims Ketav.

Ketav is one of the co-founders of YForce (Youth for Centrestage) where he led a 25 membered team with the objective of Talent Promotion and Youth Awareness. YForce secured collaborations with Salim-Sulaiman and a Hollywood filmmaker to launch pan-India competitions to promote young talent.

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