SHIVAM KUMAR

Shivam Kumar – Social Innovator | Chief Adviser, UDGI Foundation | Founder, Shopivate India Pvt. Ltd. | Rural Development Strategist Professional Roles: Shivam Kumar serves as the Chief Adviser of the UDGI Foundation, where he plays a strategic leadership role in designing and scaling impactful development programs across rural India. A passionate social entrepreneur, he is also the Founder and Director of Shopivate India Private Limited, a retail venture that promotes last-mile product accessibility through innovative distribution models. Entrepreneurial Ventures: Shopivate India Pvt. Ltd. A pioneering Cash & Carry store model based in Moradabad, designed to serve small vendors, SHGs, and rural consumers with quality daily-use products at wholesale rates. The venture is aligned with the Aatmanirbhar Bharat vision by promoting local sourcing, empowering micro-entrepreneurs, and reducing dependency on urban supply chains. Collaborations and Innovations: Village-Sarthi Project (Co-designed with Sonu Singh): Shivam Kumar co-conceptualized Village-Sarthi, an SHG-led rural retail initiative that creates livelihood opportunities for women by enabling them to run micro-stores in their villages. The project has been recognized as a Good Initiative by NITI Aayog, setting a benchmark for rural entrepreneurship models in India. Through Village-Sarthi, he has focused on building a self-sustaining retail ecosystem that connects grassroots producers with rural consumers via SHG networks. Leadership in Rural Empowerment: Shivam is actively involved in the CSC VLE Society, Moradabad, where he mentors other VLEs (Village Level Entrepreneurs) and contributes to the Digital India Mission through policy support, training, and innovative models for service delivery in villages. Recent Government Collaboration: Astronomy Lab Initiative – Government of Uttar Pradesh: Shivam Kumar is currently working on a forward-thinking initiative supported by the Government of Uttar Pradesh to set up Astronomy Labs in Government Schools. This project aims to cultivate scientific curiosity among rural students and introduce them to space science, observation techniques, and hands-on experiments. His role involves coordination, curriculum development, and lab setup across schools in UP under this STEM education effort. Vision: Shivam Kumar envisions a tech-enabled, self-reliant rural India, where grassroots innovation, community ownership, and education drive inclusive growth. Through his ventures and advisory work at UDGI Foundation, he continues to inspire change and create scalable impact models for rural development.