Kanpur. About 54 residents of Bithoor village of Kanpur Nagar district attended a particular session on capital markets at ‘Lagan Barat Ghar’ on 12 October 2025. The group, made up of farmers, agri-companies and MSMES staff, spent 4 hours from 11 am to three pm studying with a grasp coach from Avadhoot Sate Trading Academy (ASTA). The individuals included 53 males and one girl (housewife), all of whom had been excited to learn to make investments properly. Some individuals had some information of the market, however most had been fully new. This interactive session emphasised on market fundamentals, disciplined investing and the necessity for information-primarily based participation as a substitute of counting on ideas or guesswork. That for the primary time we understood what buying and selling actually is.
We did not even know that this may very well be accomplished via a cell phone. If we had already invested in firms making on a regular basis merchandise, we’d have gotten good returns at the moment. After this session, the very first thing I’ll do is open a demat account and begin investing small quantities in good firms, in order that when our youngsters develop up, they’ve financial savings prepared for their education or marriage, mentioned Ram Bahadur Yadav, 40, a labor contractor and businessman from Bithoor. Sumer Nagar, a 35-12 months-previous farmer and dairy proprietor, mentioned that I had been watching ASTA applications on-line for a very long time, however had not thought that you simply folks would set up such a program in Bithoor and that too for free. I purchased a Mahindra tractor 5 years in the past, earlier than Covid. Today I noticed that if I had purchased Mahindra shares together with it, it will have been a wise funding. Better late than by no means – at the moment’s session has impressed me to start out investing. Another participant, farmer Dipu Awasthi, 38, mentioned, “We are often forced to sell our produce at the price fixed by middlemen. But today after understanding basic chart reading, it seems we will be able to decide whether we are getting a fair price or not.”
The occasion was the second rural session organized below ‘Project Ankuran’ — a new initiative of Avadhoot Sate Trading Academy (ASTA). The venture was conceptualized after the SEBI Investor Survey of 2025 revealed that the majority traders in India haven’t obtained formal coaching in capital markets. Less than one p.c of individuals have obtained structured monetary education and lack of awareness stays the largest barrier to funding. Today India is the fourth largest fairness market in the world and the variety of demat accounts has crossed 20 crore. Yet many traders endure losses attributable to restricted understanding of market mechanisms. For the final 17 years, Avadhoot Sate has been attempting to vary this case via his instructional applications. ‘Ankuran’, which suggests “to sprout” in Sanskrit, goals to carry monetary awareness to the roots of rural India. “This campaign to spread the light of knowledge and understanding among the brothers and sisters of rural India will start from ‘World Investor Week’ and run throughout the year. This full day intensive training program will be given absolutely free of cost to the rural participants. We believe that Project Ankuran is a small but effective step in taking India towards global leadership. If the rural youth will enter the market with the right knowledge, India can become not only the largest but also the most disciplined investor country,” Avadhoot Sate. , mentioned Founder, Avadhoot Sate Trading Academy (ASTA).
This initiative, which began about 20 years in the past by explaining capital markets to some associates and relations, has at the moment developed right into a ‘Gurukul’ of data. ASTA has educated greater than 60,000 college students in 51 nations. It goals to offer monetary independence via information, expertise and capacity. ASTA’s coaching applications deal with analytical, resolution-making and execution expertise to assist individuals grow to be unbiased merchants and traders. In line with the Gurukul philosophy, ASTA imparts values together with information, enabling individuals to develop the fitting mindset, self-discipline and emotional steadiness and deal with the ups and downs of buying and selling with ease. The coaching modules additionally cowl sensible features reminiscent of emotional management, managing disturbing conditions, “what-if” evaluation, figuring out cease losses, and avoiding frequent errors like FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). ASTA’s mission via Project Sprout is to increase monetary literacy in rural India. This time with the resolve to go from village to village to offer market education.