AT age 23, Indian entrepreneur Srikanth Bolla is the CEO a company valued at 500 million Indian rupees (US$7.5 million). That’s a wonderful achievement in itself, but what’s truly inspiring is that he managed to do it despite being born completely blind.

    Now Bolla considers himself the luckiest man in the world, not for his success, but for having supportive parents who always stood by him.

    When Bolla was born blind, several of his parents’ friends and relatives advised them to abandon him. That would indeed have been the easier thing to do, given the fact that they were poor and uneducated, earning a mere 20,000 rupees (US$300) a year. But they chose to not only keep the boy, but also raise him in a positive, loving environment.

    “They are the richest people I know,” he often says.

    And their excellent parenting has paid off — today, Bolla is the CEO of Bollant Industries, a Hyderabad-based company that employs physically challenged staff to manufacture eco-friendly consumer packaging solutions made from leaves and recycled paper. The company has four manufacturing units in three states in southern India — Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Karnataka.

    Bolla’s hard work and unprecedented success has impressed the business world, attracting investments from the likes of Indian business tycoon Ratan Tata.

    Bolla set up Bollant Industries in collaboration with Swarnalatha, his special needs teacher in school and lifelong mentor and friend.

    Bolla’s immediate goal is to open a fifth manufacturing plant that will entirely run on solar power. He is currently trying to raise funds to realize this dream.(SD-Agencies)