Saurabh Mishra OAM
“I’m interested in many things,” Saurabh Mishra says, matter-of-factly. “I find I can contribute meaningfully in many streams.”
For his many innovative contributions – in healthtech, healthcare, edtech, business mentoring, classical Indian music – Mishra has received an OAM in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours.
As a tech entrepreneur, Mishra started and scaled tech initiatives in healthcare that have now gone on to become part and parcel of the daily work life of practitioners. These include EClinic (a communication software that surgeries utilise to send out medical test results), Healthnote (SMS reminders) and PalCare (a patient management software in use in palliative care in Australia and New Zealand).
Throughout though, it was community service and pro bono work that really defined Saurabh Mishra.
The first voluntary activity he talks about, is with TiE (The IndUS Entrepreneur), one of the world’s largest entrepreneurial networks that supports founders through mentoring, education, funding access, investor connections and a global community of business leaders.
At TiE Melbourne, Saurabh Mishra has helped nurture the careers of early stage entrepreneurs, changing their business by connecting them, help them grow, even investing in them as an angel investor.
“I gave twenty years, even serving on their executive,” Saurabh tells Indian Link. “It was deeply satisfying.”
Alongside, Saurabh kept up his early passion for Hindustani classical music. It has been fascinating to watch him “scale” that passion too, to borrow the business parlance he is accustomed to.
In 2016 he founded the Melbourne Hindustani Classical Music Society.
“It’s been a good forum to promote this genre of music – in nice venues, to good audiences, and to promote local artistes. Besides our monthly performances, we organise an annual international festival on Labour Day weekend by inviting international performers.”
His goal here is nothing short of ambitious – to see a world-class Hindustani classical musician emerge from Melbourne. “For this, I’ve been deep in grassroots work, investing time and effort in teaching and learning endeavours, and in performances.”
Saurabh talks with equal passion about the unexpected opportunities that came from his technical contributions in palliative care. He began to volunteer as a companion for end-stage patients.
“It was an opportunity that came at the right time,” he recalls. “I had always wanted to give back, and always had a strong interest in spiritual practice. I began to look forward to my weekly visits. We would have coffee, or walk, or chat, or meditate. Soon I began to help write their biographies.”
He has kept up this weekly activity to this day.
“I’ve met some remarkable people who have inspired me. One person that comes to mind was close to my age, and while it was disturbing for me at first, I found he had reconciled to the fact, talking about (his impending death), even joking. What a remarkable outlook to life he had – it was greatly inspiring, making me look at my own life anew, and with gratitude.”
For someone whose life has been shaped by multiple passions, the obvious question was this: if he could start again but only pursue one, which would he choose?
“I’ve been asked that before,” he laughed. “My answer – all! Each has given me joy. I’ve come to realise an underlying theme in my life’s activities – connecting people with other people, and with themselves.”
Saurabh Mishra OAM has doing both together in a brand new program that he’s waist-deep into these days. It’s called Vyatra (pronounced V-yatra, as in, virtual travel), an innovative educational platform that is finding a growing audience in schools.
“Using live video technology, students can explore places they are studying without leaving the classroom,” Saurabh described. “A geography lesson on river ecosystems, for example, might feature a guide joining in real time from the banks of the Ganga, taking students on an 800-km journey through Hrishikesh, Haridwar, Prayagraj and Varanasi while explaining the river’s ecological and cultural significance. Student engagement has been incredible.”
The concept extends beyond geography to history and culture, with immersive experiences for students in places such as Japan or Uzbekistan or East Arnhem Land.
The idea was born in 2020 during lockdown, when a virtual journey along the Ganga moved participants to tears.
Since then, Vyatra has shown Indian families their ancestral homes in pre-partition Pakistan, taken Japanese Buddhists to religious spots in South Asia, and connected palliative care patients with distant memories in Europe.
Virtual pilgrimages. Ancestral homecomings. Immersive classrooms. Smarter medical surgery practices. Gentler palliative care. A movement for Hindustani classical music. On the surface, these may seem very different ideas. But each, in its own way, is about connecting people – to place, to memory, to culture, to one another. And given that track record, it is hard not to wonder what Saurabh Mishra OAM, tech entrepreneur and social connector, will dream up next.
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