Vivek Ramaswamy: The Man Who Is Making a Difference

Aug. 18, 2023, 3:30 p.m. Business

In India, Vivek Ramaswamy is known as a man who is making a difference. He is a social entrepreneur who is working to improve the lives of people in rural India. He is the founder of the Aravind Eye Care System, which is a network of eye hospitals that provide free or low-cost eye care to the poor. He is also the founder of the Akshaya Patra Foundation, which provides hot meals to schoolchildren in India.

Ramaswamy was born in Chennai, India, in 1971. He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, with a degree in electrical engineering. He then went on to earn a master's degree in business administration from the University of Michigan.

Ramaswamy began his career as a consultant with McKinsey & Company. He then worked in investment banking at Goldman Sachs. In 2002, he founded the Aravind Eye Care System. The organization now has more than 30 hospitals in India and serves more than 3 million patients each year.

In 2006, Ramaswamy founded the Akshaya Patra Foundation. The organization provides hot meals to more than 1.6 million schoolchildren in India each day.

Ramaswamy has won numerous awards for his work, including the Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, and the Padma Shri, one of India's highest civilian honors.

Ramaswamy is married and has two children.