He decided to be an entrepreneur himself soon. "Saloni, coming all the way from Delhi and starting a venture of her own at a young age, was an inspiration for me. Jhunjhunwala was trying to start a project of outsourcing manufacturing from villages. So, I approached him with a business idea and he agreed." That was in January 2007.

His company ROPE started operating in April 2007.

A Bangalore based company called Indus Tree Crafts Foundation (that makes home fabrics and furnishings from different types of natural fibres) gave Sreejith his first order -- to supply natural banana yarn.

With Rs 25,000 as capital, he opened three units for banana fibre extraction -- Melakkal in Madurai district, Pasupathy Koil in Thanjavur district and Govindanagaram in Theni district.

"We chose the places based on the availability of banana in the area. As we wanted to connect the places through ICT, we chose places where N-Logue kiosks (started by the TeNet group) were available. The kiosk owners acted as entrepreneurs."