A Social Entrepreneur by Heart and the founder of Raheja Solar Food Processing Pvt Ltd, Varun Raheja

Varun Raheja is the founder of Raheja Solar Food Processing Pvt Ltd, a social venture founded by, offers farmers the most inexpensive and DIY foldable solar dryer to generate value-added products from the produce that would otherwise go to waste or be sold at extremely low costs.

Varun Raheja, 24, a social entrepreneur at heart and skilled engineer, wants to improve India by assisting the people who actually built the nation—the farmers. Three years ago, Varun created Raheja Solar Food Processing with the goal of empowering our farmers. He accomplishes this by creating the most practical and cost-effective solar dryer that can be set up on even the most isolated farm in India.

With the Raheja Solar Dryer, produce is dried without losing its original colour, flavour, aroma, or nutritional value, and it has a minimum shelf life of one year as opposed to one week when it is fresh.

Many businesses manufacture solar dryers, but they do not inform farmers on how to use them, thus many farmers previously purchased the dryer but were unsure of what to do with the finished product, and the company is forced to pay the price. Varun and his team are working to educate farmers and gradually bring about change. Varun is currently supplying dryers to Indonesia, Bhutan, and Malawi, demonstrating that demand for Raheja Solar’s products is not limited to India.

Varun is highlighted in the Forbes 30U30 Asia category for industry, manufacturing, and energy this year. His advancement was acknowledged by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2019 as a climate-smart, income-sensitive storage technology that will help accomplish sustainable development objectives. Additionally, he received the Dr. Shirin Gadhia Sustainability Award in 2018.