Obama's invitation to Bihar's rickshaw guru

Patna: By Bihar standards, it's an unusual sight. The US Ambassador to India, riding a cycle rickshaw, through the streets of Patna.

The photo-op followed an invitation extended by the Ambassador, Timothy Roemer, to Irfan Alam, to meet President Barack Obama later this year in Washington.

Alam is known as "Bihar's Rickshaw Man".  The conference he's been asked to attend in the US brings entrepreneurs together.  

 
For three years, Alam, who graduated from Ahemdabad's Indian Institute of Management (IIM), run  Samman, which works with 10,000 rickshaw pullers across 10 states.  They operate as part of a superior-service brand, providing newspapers and mineral water to their customers.

"People like Irfan have proved that the spirit of entrepreneurship is alive, even in states like Bihar.  At the same time, he is also running a profitable business, and it will be an honour to have him in America," said Timothy J Roemer, the US Ambassador.
 
As for Irfan, he has bigger plans.  "The next challenge for me is to also help these rickshaw-pullers have their own low-cost homes, to give them the right to roti, kapda and makaan in the right sense."