Manan Singla.
For Manan Singla, entrepreneurship is not simply about building a business. It is about understanding the systems that shape everyday life: who they serve, where people fall through their gaps, and how they can become more responsive to the communities that depend on them.
While studying commerce at IEC University, Manan has built a profile at the intersection of entrepreneurship, community-centred problem-solving, urban mobility, public-sector operations, research and philosophy. His work has taken him from engaging with municipal authorities and auto-rickshaw networks to publishing research on technology, labour and informal institutions in smaller Indian cities. Alongside this, he has published his first book, Meet Me in the Backyard, exploring identity, mortality, belief, freedom and the psychology of the self.
One of Manan's key entrepreneurial projects is ECTO India, a mobility venture he founded in 2024 to explore technology-enabled auto-rickshaw transportation in tier-2 and tier-3 Indian cities. Rather than simply replicating metropolitan models, Manan has focused on understanding the transport ecosystems that already exist, including drivers, local networks, fare structures and informal systems of coordination.
This question forms the basis of his recently published research paper, "Platformisation in Smaller Indian Cities: A Literature Review of Informal Institutions, Labour and Technology Adoption in Urban Mobility." The paper examines how driver unions, labour incentives, regulation, personal networks and locally established systems of trust influence the adoption of digital mobility platforms. Its central argument is that technology cannot simply be transplanted from metropolitan markets; platforms must adapt to the institutional and social environments of the cities they enter.
The research also connects directly to Manan's work with ECTO, where he is developing a field-based model for integrating local auto-rickshaw networks with technology platforms, examining driver onboarding, fare logic, route design, partnerships and barriers to adoption.
His entrepreneurial experience extends into another area with a direct impact on everyday urban life: public sanitation. Through S.S. Solutions, Manan has worked on municipal sanitation and mechanised sweeping assignments, including deploying a 3D mechanical road-sweeping machine under the Municipal Council of Kurukshetra. The experience has given him a ground-level understanding of public-service delivery and the coordination required to maintain shared urban spaces.
This has also inspired an independent, output-based framework for municipal sanitation contracts, measuring outcomes through indicators such as kilometres swept, machine hours, dust removed, water-sprinkling coverage and pollution-control operations. For Manan, sanitation thus becomes a broader question of how municipalities, private operators and measurable systems can work together to improve the environments in which people live.
Beyond these practical systems, Manan's interests extend to questions about the individual. His published book, Meet Me in the Backyard, explores identity, mortality, belief, fear, desire, power, freedom and self-deception, reflecting his wider interests in philosophy, theology and psychology.
What connects these seemingly different pursuits is a consistent instinct: to understand problems at the level of both systems and people, and explore how those systems might work better. As Manan continues to build ventures, pursue research and explore ideas, his journey reflects the possibilities available to a generation willing to look beyond conventional boundaries, not simply to identify problems, but to understand the people behind them and turn that understanding into action.
For Manan Singla, entrepreneurship is not simply about building a business. It is about understanding the systems that shape everyday life: who they serve, where people fall through their gaps, and how they can be made more responsive to the communities that depend on them.
While studying commerce at IEC University, Manan has been building a profile that sits at the intersection of entrepreneurship, community-centred problem-solving, urban mobility, public-sector operations, research and philosophy. His work has taken him from working directly with municipal authorities and auto-rickshaw networks to publishing academic research on how technology interacts with informal institutions in smaller Indian cities, encouraging him to look beyond efficiency alone and consider questions of livelihood, accessibility, trust and public welfare. Alongside this, he has now published his first book, Meet Me in the Backyard, an exploration of identity, mortality, belief, freedom and the psychology of the self.
One of Manan's most significant entrepreneurial projects is ECTO India, a mobility venture he founded in 2024 to explore technology-enabled auto-rickshaw transportation in tier-2 and tier-3 Indian cities. Rather than simply attempting to replicate the app-based cab model developed in metropolitan India, Manan's work has focused on understanding the existing transport ecosystem in smaller cities, including drivers, local networks, fare structures and informal systems of coordination.
This approach has led him to an important question: Can a mobility platform designed for Bengaluru, Delhi or Mumbai simply be transplanted into a smaller Indian city?
His recently published research paper, "Platformisation in Smaller Indian Cities: A Literature Review of Informal Institutions, Labour and Technology Adoption in Urban Mobility," explores precisely this question. Drawing on research into informal institutions, platform labour, algorithmic management and transport governance, the paper examines what happens when digital mobility platforms enter cities where transportation is already shaped by driver unions, shared-route practices, personal networks and locally established systems of trust. The research argues that technology alone cannot determine whether a mobility platform succeeds. Existing informal institutions, labour incentives, local regulation and perceptions of trust and value all influence how a platform is adopted. In smaller cities, where personal relationships and established transport networks can carry considerable social legitimacy, a new digital platform may have to work with these institutions rather than simply attempting to replace them.
One of the cases Manan examines is Namma Yatri, whose partnership with Bengaluru's Auto Rickshaw Drivers' Union offers an example of a platform adapting itself to an existing driver network rather than treating that network as an obstacle. His paper uses the case to illustrate a broader argument: successful platformisation may depend as much on institutional adaptation and trust as on the technology itself.
The research has a particularly personal connection to Manan's entrepreneurial work. Through ECTO India, he is himself developing a field-based model for integrating local auto-rickshaw networks with technology platforms. His work involves examining driver onboarding, fare logic, route design, partnerships and the barriers that can prevent technology adoption at the local level.
"The challenge isn't simply putting an app in a city. You have to understand the system that already exists."
~ Manan Singla
His entrepreneurial experience extends into another area with an immediate impact on everyday urban life: public sanitation. Through S.S. Solutions, Manan has worked on municipal sanitation and mechanised sweeping assignments, including the deployment of a 3D mechanical road-sweeping machine under the Municipal Council of Kurukshetra. Working closely with municipal systems gave him a ground-level view of an essential public service that is often noticed only when it fails, and of the coordination required to keep shared urban spaces cleaner and more effectively maintained.
His responsibilities have ranged from equipment deployment and daily operations to municipal coordination and service reporting. But the experience also prompted him to think about how public services can be evaluated by the outcomes they create for communities, rather than simply by whether a contractual task has been completed. Manan is consequently developing an independent, output-based framework for municipal sanitation contracts, considering indicators such as kilometres swept, machine hours, dust removed, water-sprinkling coverage and pollution-control operations. For Manan, this has turned sanitation from an operational assignment into a larger question of public service delivery: how can municipalities, private operators and measurable systems work together to improve the environments in which people live? Much like his work in mobility, it reflects an interest in understanding public systems from the ground up, and using that understanding to make them more responsive to the people they ultimately serve.
But Manan's interests are not limited to the systems around him. They also extend inward, to the questions people ask about themselves. His recently published book, Meet Me in the Backyard, explores identity, mortality, belief, fear, desire, power, freedom and self-deception. The book represents another side of his intellectual interests, moving away from the mechanics of urban systems and towards philosophy, theology and psychology. That apparent contrast is actually characteristic of Manan's broader body of work, which include the philosophy of self, mortality and freedom; philosophical theology and comparative belief; entrepreneurship and institution-building; urban mobility and public-private service delivery; and gemology and value perception.
What connects these seemingly different pursuits is a willingness to look beyond the obvious structure of a problem. An auto-rickshaw platform is not merely a technology problem; it involves labour, trust, regulation and the communities that depend on it. Municipal sanitation is not merely a question of deploying machinery; it involves public service, coordination and the quality of the spaces people live in. And questions of entrepreneurship and achievement eventually lead Manan towards more fundamental questions about identity, freedom, belief and human behaviour.
At the beginning of his undergraduate journey, Manan Singla is pursuing several paths simultaneously: building ventures, conducting independent research and writing about the questions that shape how people understand themselves and the systems around them. Together, they reflect a consistent instinct: to understand problems at the level of both systems and people, and then explore how those systems might work better. As he continues to explore the intersections of entrepreneurship, research and ideas, Manan's journey reflects the possibilities available to a generation increasingly willing to look beyond conventional boundaries, not simply to identify problems, but to understand the people behind them and turn that understanding into action.
As he continues to explore the intersections of entrepreneurship, research and ideas, Manan's journey reflects the possibilities available to a generation increasingly willing to build, question and create beyond conventional boundaries.
