CEO Insights Magazine

With its roots dating back more than 10,000 years, Sanatan Dharma (Hinduism) is the only Dharma (oldest religion) in the world. While our Sastras, Vedas, and temples are a window to our countries' rich culture, heritage as well as histories, the same can't be said about the depiction of our culture across the world. Our culture has always been wrongly depicted and misinterpreted across the world due to only misleading and degraded information available over the internet. To digitize our culture, and temples as well as build communities around them, Himank Barve started Code For Dharma, a brand registered under the non-profit NGO named Mayash Foundation. While the project is yet to be open to the public, Himank's passionate endeavor behind showcasing our culture and rich heritage across the world while mitigating every hurdle coming his way is truly applaudable.

In an exclusive interview with CEO Insights, Himank shares about his early education and prior industry experience, the underlying idea behind founding Code for Dharma, and much more.

Tell us about your professional background and experiences. What inspired you to establish Code For Dharma and how has been your journey so far?
After my B. Tech from IIT Dhanbad, to bridge the skill development gap in current graduates and postgraduates as well as improve the education quality and system in India, I started my EdTech startup. However, the firm didn't work out financially, and later, I joined an Ahmedabad-based company, named Acquire, as a Senior Software Developer. Later, I joined a US-based solar company, named HST Solar, as a Senior Software Developer and worked there on buying and selling clean energy to big corporations at affordable prices.

During my time at HST, I got the idea of working for our native culture, such as our Vedas and Sastras, which have been mostly misrepresented and misinterpreted
with only degraded copies available over the internet. I started working on this idea as a side project. During

the pandemic, I left my job and worked on the idea fulltime for a few months. Later, I got infected with Covid and after recovery, joined a US-based fintech company, named RoadFlex, as a Senior Software Developer, while working on my side project, later known as Code For Dharma, simultaneously.

Code For Dharma is a brand registered under the parent organization named Mayash Foundation, a registered NGO. At Code For Dharma,we are working on the digitalization of all the indepth knowledge worked on, studied, experimented and written down by our ancestors. We are presently working on the digitalization of our Hindu temples while building communities around them. We are also working on the digitalization of Sanskrit to make it easily accessible to everyone in one place. Along with these, we are also working on digitizing our history with facts and figures. These projects will be open to the masses very soon. Coming to the journey, the overall journey as the founder of a startup has been full of challenges with a lot of hurdles, delays, and miscommunication. However, the firm has been experiencing consistent growth.

Reflect on some of the major challenges you have experienced in your journey so far.
There have been constant challenges throughout the whole journey. One of the major challenges I have faced has been in terms of networking. People should be more open to listening, helping each other, and networking in reputed institutes like IIT. However, instead of any guidance, I faced a lot of demotivation while pitching a lot of my ideas to my seniors. Another major challenge has been in terms of finance. People usually struggle a lot due to less knowledge on how to structure their finances at the beginning of their entrepreneurial journey. I have put a lot of my own capital into this project throughout the journey. It would have been really helpful to have someone guide you regarding finance management at the earlier stage. However, now I am well experienced and have learned finance management quite well while simultaneously growing as an

entrepreneur.

What is your success mantra?
As a regular practitioner of the Bhagavad Gita, there have been some of the quotes that I put into regular practice in my day-to-day life. One of those quotes has been "As a Karma Yogi, we should do our work with the best of our intentions without any concerns for the results". There is also another profound quote from Bhagavad Gita that I implement in my regular life, which says, "Being equanimous with both success and failure in life is much better than losing your control to narrow success". So being equanimous to both success and failures while staying calm and focused has been my success mantra.

Going forward, what are the goals that you wish to invest in and how do you plan to take them further?
Mayash Foundation is a nonprofit entity and so does all the projects under Code For Dharma. While we want to make these projects financially stable, turning them into moneymaking machine blocks is not our goal. Along with the huge opportunities in temple tourism, there are also a lot of micro-economic activities going on and still unchartered territory. There are a lot of unorganized economic opportunities around the temple premises, and we are planning to make it more organized and effective while helping those people earn more money. In terms of social networking, we are also trying to connect our younger generation to temples and their historical significance. Because of the continuously evolving technology and social media, the current generation has been very much disconnected from its ancient cultures. We have been working on bringing those youths close to our ancient culture.

Himank Barve, Founder & CEO, Code For Dharma
Himank is a Software Developer with more than seven years of professional experience working for many firms both in India and the US. He is also the founder of Code For Dharma, a brand working on showcasing our culture and heritage to the world through the digitalization of our temples, under the parent organization named Mayash Foundation, a registered NGO. An avid yoga practitioner and member of the Art of Living Foundation, Himank is an enthusiastic gadgeteer who loves to learn new tools and technologies.

Hobbies:Computer Programming, Playing Chess Travelling, Mentoring Young Developers

Favorite Cuisine:Vegetarian Cuisine