It was just one of those speeches that Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras made in Delhi to 'inspire' India's youth. He was speaking about the big employment opportunities that the business process outsourcing industry has created in urban India. His poser: Why not have such BPOs in rural India, too?

Among the 400 people who listened to him in rapt attention was Saloni Malhotra, a 23-year-old engineer who 'always wanted to do something for rural India.'

She got so 'inspired' that she wrote to him asking for an opportunity to work with him. Initially, he was not sure whether she was serious about taking up such a huge challenge. But she persisted.

She quit her well-paying job in Delhi and came to Tamil Nadu to take up the challenge. That was two years ago. Impressed by her persistence, the Rural Technology & Business Incubator, IIT Madras finally decided to take Saloni serioulsy.

IIT Madras then incubated her company -- DesiCrew -- and she got anointed the chief executive of the start-up, which takes work from urban to rural India using information and communications technology.

The first three months were spent on understanding the people, and working with the kiosks started by n-Logue in the rural areas of Tamil Nadu. The next six months were spent on finding out what clients actually needed.

In one year, they found that people in rural areas are as employable as those from urban areas: the only difference being that it takes longer to train them and bring them on par with their urban counterparts. That was in January 2005.

In February 2007, DesiCrew Solutions was launched. "There were a lot of names we were working on. This one was suggested by a friend. 'Desi' means Indian and 'crew' means workforce. A lot of people have told us that the name is very good."

DesiCrew has come a long way. It has empowered hundreads of rural youth in Tamil Nadu and other parts of India.

Few accolades:

BusinessWeek's Emerging Entrepreneur

Nominated for TATA NEN Hottest Startup

MTV Youth Icon....

Saloni is indeed a youth icon!