Pravesh Sharma, the IAS officer who became a Sabziwala

Pravesh Sharma's start-up wants to do right by all: using sensible pricing and right economics, it seeks to sell quality veggie

Not many have opted to become sabziwallas after three decades in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), India’s steel frame. But, Pravesh Sharma is not your ordinary IAS officer — he is both idealistic and brave. Few in the Indian executive today know as much about agriculture as he does. Just four years short of retirement in June 2016, he decided he’d banged his head against the wall enough. He quit the IAS after a five-year stint as managing director of the Small Farmers’ Agri-business Consortium (SFAC), to start Sabziwala, a start-up that is as unpretentious as he is. It is