Prashant Gade Age, Girlfriend, Family, Biography & More

Some Lesser Known Facts About Prashant Gade

• Prashant Gade is an Indian entrepreneur, writer, speaker, and philanthropist.

• When he was too young, his grandfather passed away. After his grandfather’s last rites, Prashant asked his mother why his grandfather’s clothes were removed? His mother’s reply changed his perspective towards the society. His mother’s reply was,

When we die we leave everything on earth, we don’t take anything along with us; even the richest people cannot take their money with them.”

• He started Curiosity Lab while he was in college and helped engineering students in making projects.

• When he was in third year of his engineering, he dropped out of the college and started doing a job of Rs. 5000 a month in Pune.

• While he was working, he got to know about Nicolas Huchet, a Bionico hand-maker who lost his hand in an accident and made himself a bionic arm.
  

  Prashant Gade with Nicolas Hutchet

• Later, he met a seven-year-old girl Shreya who was born without limbs. Prashant contacted one of the prosthetic limbs labs and got to know that prosthetic limbs would cost Rs. 24 lakhs. He felt bad for the poor people who cannot afford it and decided to make prosthetic limbs at a very low price.

• In an interview, he shared that his parents were not happy with his decision of quitting engineering and did not support him on making prosthetic limbs, he said,

Many people said that I was stupid to throw off a comfortable life that engineering promised. My parents were also not convinced. They thought this to be too early to work for social change. My father advises me to work on myself first before working for others, and so, enrolled me in another computer science course. But I was not going to let go. I continued and tried getting funds through various avenues. Although I did not get any at first, my idea impressed the Technical Secretary of Jaipur Foot, who soon gave me a seed grant to design seven such hands.”

• Later, he got funds from Technical Secretary of Jaipur Foot Foundation (which works to support disabled people) as they were impressed with his idea of making prosthetic hands. He has worked with many organisations like FAB Lab and Enable Foundation as a research fellow.
  

  Prashant Gade in his lab

• In 2016, he started an organisation to make prosthetic limbs ‘Innovating New Abilities,’ also known as INALI Foundation, on his girlfriend’s name Inali Wahane. In an interview, he talked about his girlfriend, he said,

There was a time after I dropped out of college and my FAB course when even my own parents lost faith in me. There were a lot of struggles and obstacles. She supported me all through it.”

• He was contacted by a retired professor from the USA in 2016, who gave Prashant ten machines to make prosthetics.

• His organisation designed more than 700 arms and distributed for free among the needy people and more than 300 arms have been sold across the country. In an interview, he talked about the aim of his foundation, he said,

It’s our mission to travel to the remotest of villages across India and organise free electronic-arms distribution camps every month. We are sustaining Inali via selling prosthetic arms at a nominal cost to those who can afford to buy. But there are so many people out there without the funds or access. We, at Inali, want to help them build their lives.”

• In 2019 and 2020, he appeared as a guest speaker in TEDx talks at NMINS Shirpur and INK talks.

• He was honoured with The REX Karmaveer Global Fellowship and Karmaveer Chakra award instituted by iCONGO in partnership with the United Nations in 2019.
  

  Prashant Gade’s Karmaveer Chakra award

• He appeared in the special Karamveer episode of ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati 12’ in 2021.