About GroundReality Trust · PotHoleRaja

An impact innovation lab for India’s ground reality

We research, design, build and measure solutions for streets, soils and systems, and help CSR teams and NGOs do the same.

Mission: to make our world pothole-free and safer.

A decade of PotHoleRaja

Our base, not our boundary

Each phase earned something the next one needed: trust and a citizen network, then corporate partners and delivery muscle, then patented technology and research partners. The lab brings all three together.

Phase 1

The movement

Citizens report potholes on WhatsApp: +91 814 POTHOLE
4,500 potholes fixed by 2018
National TV, print and radio coverage

Phase 2

The CSR partner

50+ CSR programmes in 30+ cities
Model roads with ABB, Hyundai and Goodyear
20 school zones with Mercedes-Benz

Phase 3

The innovator

GridMats patent granted, PCT filed
Tested with IIT Hyderabad and MSRIT
IoT smart surfaces; urban-heat patent filed

Phase 4 · 2027 →

The impact lab

Research, AI, materials, agri and youth
Consulting for CSR teams and NGOs
Every project measured and audit-ready

What the decade built

Trust, reach and delivery muscle

40,000+

potholes fixed with citizens and companies

30+

cities, from Jammu to Kozhikode

10,000+

volunteers, 25,000+ hours given

50+

CSR programmes, including 5 global auto makers

14,000+

school children reached in one programme

140 t

plastic waste managed in one year

Certified by Climate Collective Foundation, FY 2022–23

Women road-care crew in orange vests repairing a pothole — Women road crew

Lenovo leadership and employees at a road safety drive — Lenovo leaders on site

ABB model road in Bengaluru at night with LED street lights — ABB model road

Giant helmet installation for helmet awareness in Goa — Helmet drive, Goa

Dr Prathap B, founder of PotHoleRaja, holding the Adani Green Talks award — Dr Prathap B · Adani Green Talks Social Impact Awards 2025

Watch him at TEDxLavelleRoad (2017), in How can India build roads that last? (Godrej Design Lab × The Gyaan Project, 68 min) and in Why I started PotHoleRaja (2 min).

Who leads the lab

Led by a builder of systems

Dr Prathap B (PhD) served in the Indian Air Force, then became one of the youngest AVPs at Hewitt, a VP at HP and a process consultant in Malaysia and Dubai.

A Harvard ALDP alumnus and visiting faculty at IIM Bangalore, he started PotHoleRaja and is the creator and inventor of GridMats and the urban-heat cooling surface. He is the author of 4 books and the forthcoming Cockpit to Potholes, and spoke at TEDxLavelleRoad.

The lab applies that systems thinking to roads, materials, farms and CSR itself.

Featured in The Hindu, Times of India, India Today, WION and YourStory; TEDx talk at TEDxLavelleRoad.

Awards: Climate Redesign Award 2026 (Climate Collective Foundation), the Sustainable Infrastructure Innovator Award (SDG 9) at the Adani Green Talks Social Impact Awards 2025, and Best Innovative Solution at Urban Mobility India 2023. Also a SARTHI Awards finalist (FICCI and ADPC, Bali, 2022), a solution listed on World Economic Forum UpLink, and featured on Shark Tank India, Season 3.

People and governance

Engineers, researchers, administrators

CSR teams check governance before ideas. Here is who advises us and how we are set up.

Advisory committee

Retd. Chief EngineerPWD and BBMP
Professors of Civil EngineeringIISc, MSRIT and RV College
Professor of Geotechnical EngineeringIIT Hyderabad
Former Deputy CommissionersPolice and Excise
Senior Advocate and CSR expertLegal advisor
Research councilAI, materials, agri and public-health experts

Structure & compliance

GroundReality TrustCSR implementation, research, youth programmes
InventionsGridMats and the urban-heat cooling surface, invented by Dr Prathap B: a granted Indian patent, a published international (PCT) application and a 2026 patent application
QualityISO 9001:2015
RegistrationsCSR-1 with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs; 12AA and 80G with the Income Tax Department; PAN

Registration and patent numbers, and copies of the certificates, are shared for specific projects.

Where the impact counts

Mapped to ESG, the SDGs and Schedule VII

● primary · ○ supporting · ESG lens: the pillar each practice reports into
Practice	ESG lens	SDG 2 Hunger	SDG 3 Health	SDG 4 Learning	SDG 8 Work	SDG 9 Industry	SDG 11 Cities	SDG 12 Circular	SDG 13 Climate	SDG 17 Partners
Roads & mobility	S		●	○		○	●
AI & data	E · S · G		●			●	●		○	○
Materials & climate	E					●	○	●	●
Rural & agri	E · S	●			●	○		○
Youth & students	S		○	●	○
Research & advisory	G				○			○	○	●

E · Environment

Plastic diverted, CO₂ and water saved, cooler surfaces

S · Social

Lives protected, students reached, local jobs created

G · Governance

Audit-ready evidence, BRSR-ready data, independent studies

Schedule VII

(ii) education & livelihoods · (iv) environment · (ix) research · (x) rural development

Road deaths are SDG target 3.6 and safe transport is target 11.2. Confirm ESG and Schedule VII fit per project with your CSR advisor.

Proposed goals · for discussion

Where we want to be by 2030

10

cities using AI road-risk maps with their agencies

100

Zero-Harm School Zones, measured before and after

5,000 t

of waste turned into roads, yards and paths

50

villages with all-weather farm-to-market access

1,000

student researchers, and 1 lakh students reached

100

CSR programmes and NGOs advised or assessed

Ecosystem

Backed by programmes that back innovators

Startup India
AGNIi (Government of India)
Social Alpha
Tata Trusts
Brigade REAP

Media & research Partner with us

An impact innovation lab for India’s ground reality

Our base, not our boundary

The movement

The CSR partner

The innovator

The impact lab

Trust, reach and delivery muscle

Led by a builder of systems

Engineers, researchers, administrators

Advisory committee

Structure & compliance

Mapped to ESG, the SDGs and Schedule VII

E · Environment

S · Social

G · Governance

Schedule VII

Where we want to be by 2030

Backed by programmes that back innovators

Every road fixed starts with someone who cares