What does it actually take to build something that can reach a billion people?In this episode, Sanjay Purohit unpacks what exponential change really means, and why social impact can't be approached the way we approach business growth. After 25 years in the corporate world, Sanjay stepped away at 50, mentored by Nandan Nilekani, to build the Center for Exponential Change. Ten years later, after EkStep, Shiksha Graha, and now Apurva.AI, he puts it bluntly: if you tried to train India's 4.5 million school leaders one institution at a time, it would take 5000 years. So he didn't. He built a network instead.Sanjay pushes on three sharper questions: What is scale? What is speed? And what does it mean for change to actually sustain?The conversation explores:Why scale is about the size of the problem, not the size of your organisationWhy solutions need to be portable, able to spread through other people's handsThe relationship between scale, speed, and sustainability, and why ”differentiation” is often the wrong questionWhy sometimes ”slow is faster” than what we think is fastThe ”farm vs. forest” mental model, and why interconnected systems outlast standalone programsHow networks help solve problems too large for any single organisation (Project ECHO's ”all teach, all learn” model)Why expertise needs to be diffused, not concentrated in a few expertsHow young changemakers can build the self-efficacy to lead systemic changeHow AI can become a force for diffusion rather than concentration, shaping Apurva.AIWhat it means to design for population-level impact, not project-level impactIf you're interested in systems change, social impact, exponential change, innovation, leadership, AI, or networks, this episode is for you.

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Two Founders Walk Into Featured in FeedSpot's Top 25 Indian Leadership Podcasts

About Ajit Sivaram and Satish Manchikanti – Co-founders of U&I Trust and Change+.
About U&I – A nonprofit committed to transforming lives through education and community engagement. U&I Teach provides after-school tutoring and mentorship to underprivileged children across India. U&I Empower creates volunteering opportunities for corporate employees. Core values: #bethechange #bigaudaciousimpact #inthistogether
About Change+ – Helps people become the leaders they're meant to be, blending self-awareness, real-world practice, and people-first thinking for emerging and senior leaders.

Follow them on LinkedIn:Ajit Sivaram – https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajit4949/Satish Manchikanti – https://www.linkedin.com/in/satish-manchikanti/

Visit our Website: https://uandi.org.in/Volunteer With U&I: https://uandi.org.in/volunteerPartner With U&I: https://uandi.org.in/csrWork With U&I: https://uandi.org.in/hiringDonate to our Cause: https://ui.danamojo.org/
Follow Us:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uandi.org.in/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/u&i-charity/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/uanditvSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/04ZaR7HIvmqL5iG9wAAdV4Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/two-founders-walk-into/id1806002327Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/0a5b4559-645c-4b99-a556-adef1fab97c7/two-founders-walk-into

More from Sanjay:

1. Rhythm, Harmony, Melody: https://centreforexponentialchange.org/rhythm-harmony-melody-the-art-of-system-orchestration/
2. System Orchestration: https://centreforexponentialchange.org/it-is-a-system-orchestration-at-play/
3. Podcast with ShikshaLokam: https://youtu.be/6s_qIK0VV8Q
4. Podcast with Apurva: https://youtu.be/Z3oIx4WwHbw
5. Think Collective Month: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-squirrels-know-scale-societal-thinking-9tsdc/
6. Think Books: https://societalthinking.org/books/
7. Project ECHO: https://societalthinking.org/distributing-the-ability-to-solve-moving-knowledge-faster-with-with-echo/
8. What is Exponential Change: https://centreforexponentialchange.org/what-is-exponential-change/