Akshay Raskar, 34, was raised in a Marathwada agricultural family and seen his parents struggle to make a living from their property. He opened a cellphone and electronics store in his town while he was in his early 20s, but it failed to take off because of the $222 he earned from YouTube for a video he had submitted three years earlier.
He looked into whether a text-based media may allow him to make a living, which is how he came across blogging. More than ten years later, Raskar manages eight websites, all in Marathi, and boasts to bring in about $50,000 each month, or more than 40 lakh. He claims to make over 40 lakh in income per month while working with a team of 30 young people.
In his town of Kolgaon, Maharashtra, Raskar has inspired hundreds of bloggers who write on a variety of topics. He began translating convoluted government directives into simple English and posting them on his blog. In order to increase online infrastructure and internet access, particularly in rural regions, where 70% of India’s population resides, Prime Minister Narendra Modi started the Digital India initiative in 2015.
According to a study by the IAMAI (Internet and Mobile Association of India) from 2022, there are 692 million active internet users in India. In Kolgaon, more and more individuals are installing Facebook and WhatsApp on their mobile devices, making it simpler for Raskar to spread his blog.
His business acumen has altered the village’s appearance, as nighttime conversations frequently centre on who made how much money. Two of the bloggers he encouraged are now making reasonable incomes. Two farmers from Kolgaon, Patil and Londhe, paid off the farm loans owed by their parents in three years. The local Beed media has also written on Patil.
A 32-year-old farmer from Kolgaon named Vinod Nimbalkar is still holding onto 40 quintals of cotton since the going pricing of 7,000 a quintal won’t allow him to break even.
Variations in temperature and precipitation brought on by climate change have decreased farm revenue by 15–18% for irrigated regions and as much as 25% for non-irrigated areas. Nimbalkar is currently thinking of giving up his farming gradually and turning to blogging as a full-time career.
Raskar has paid off all the debts his parents made and purchased a four-wheeler on his own. The thought that his three-year-old daughter will live in comfort and have the means to pursue her education to the fullest extent makes him feel the happiest.
