Mr. D V Manohar

Mr. D V Manohar is a first-generation entrepreneur and Founder-Chairman of the Shri Shakti Group the core areas of which are Hospitality, Education, LPG, Public Bike Sharing and Solar Power. Mr. Manohar was the Chairman in the past of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), unified Andhra Pradesh. He was also the President of Hotels and Restaurants Association of Andhra Pradesh for two terms. He is the Vice President & Treasurer of World Cycling Alliance (WCA) headquartered in Brussels and the Chairman of the Hyderabad Bicycling Club (HBC). Under his leadership, HBC has grown from 800 members in 2011 to over 16,000 members today and emerged as the world’s largest cycling club online.

Shri Shakti Group’s latest venture SmartBike is India’s fastest growing Public Bike Sharing (PBS) company having set up world class PBS systems in New Delhi, Chennai & Chandigarh and launching soon in Hyderabad.

Mr. Manohar is an expert speaker and presented himself at numerous reputed conferences such as Habitat III organized by the United Nations and 3 Global Cycling Summits viz Velo-City Global in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

He also successfully finished the 520 kms long grueling London to Paris Cycle Challenge in 2011 and repeated the same in May 2013.

He is a proud recipient of numerous awards and recognitions; the Andhra Pradesh Distinguished Industrialist Award from the then Chief Minister of unified AP, Shri Chandrababu Naidu being one among them.

What cause are you most passionate about impacting in today’s world?

Air quality is impacting most parts of the world in a big way. The air quality is adversely affected by factors such as vehicular pollution, industrial pollution, wild forest fires, etc.  The poor air quality is resulting in reducing the life span of people in many countries.

In India, the air quality is deteriorating each day, primarily due to the urban vehicular pollution menace. Studies have shown how in the capital city of Delhi, the life span of citizens is being reduced by as much as 10 years because of poor air quality. Most of urban India including Hyderabad is affected by this serious problem where the life span of citizens is reduced by at least five years.

The solution to the above is to substantially bring down the reliance on fossil fuel driven transport and promoting Non-Motorized Transport (NMT) in general and cycling in particular. As Vice President and Treasurer of the World Cycling Alliance based at Brussels, I am actively engaged in promoting cycling all over the world. Cycling contributes considerably to reducing the vehicular pollution menace resulting in better air quality, and in addition contributes to better physical well-being. In India, we are promoting state-of-the-art public bike sharing systems in major cities through our SmartBike Project, through which we aim to spread the cycling revolution all over the world in the years to come.