Komal Parakh has graduated in Economics and Political Science from the University of Mumbai. She successfully founded the organization Upcycle Corps., a startup venture dedicated to bringing sustainable lifestyles to communities. Through her startup venture, Komal has effectively prevented over 50,000 meters of underutilized textile leftover from garment manufacturing and apparel production from going to waste by ending up in incinerators or landfills. She has repurposed all this textile into 10,000+ sustainable clothing concepts. In the entire process, Komal has generated fair-wage employment opportunities for 150+ artisans hailing from the remotest parts of the country. In 2015, Komal, along with her team, was awarded the 1st prize for coming up with the best business model at National University of Singapore (NUS). In 2016, she was one of the 350 delegates chosen from a global applicant pool to represent her country, India at the Harvard Project for Asia and International Relations (HPAIR), where she represented the Entrepreneurship panel. In 2018, Komal was accepted into the spring cohort of Harvard Innovation Labs’ Student Venture Network. In addition to this, Komal is on the board of several startups across the education, healthcare, IT and Consulting space. These include Oya Opportunities, FutureHack, Digital Mayong, Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp and the like. In her 5 years of experience, she has interacted with 10,000+ students, 500+ industry & thought leaders and 250+ civic, political and business organizations. Her work has led to influencing, engaging and building relationships with key stakeholders across numerous platforms and functional areas including but not limited to - Organizational Behaviour, Growth & Strategy, Operations, PR, Marketing, Customer Relationship Management, Leadership & Team Building, et Komal was recently awarded the ‘Outstanding Young Achiever of the Year’ by the Global Education Summit & Awards 2021 for her exemplary achievements and contribution In the education space. She has also been awarded as the India Inspirational Woman 2021 in the Business & Entrepreneurship space. In addition to this, Komal has been featured in the prestigious ‘99 Achievers of India’ book published by the The Indian Achievers Club and is also on the list of the ‘30 under 30 awardees’ of the same organization. Komal is also a prolific writer and has published several articles including those on ‘Barter in the Age of Paucity and Excess’, ‘Dissolving Boundaries Through Sustainable Returns’ and ‘Application Development as a Career’ on LinkedIn, the Harvard Crimson and Education Times (Times of India) respectively. She is a youth advocate for sustainability, climate action and ending inequality and illiteracy amongst youth and features in several videos about the same.
