Sarathbabu Elumalai

Sarathbabu Elumalai is an Indian entrepreneur, social worker and politician. He is the founder and CEO of FoodKing.

Early life and education
Sarathbabu was born in Madipakkam, a suburb of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. He had four siblings and the family was supported by his mother Deepa Ramani, an Anganwadi worker. She also did various other jobs like making idlis, which Sarathbabu used to sell before going to school.

Sarath did his schooling at Kings matriculation school. He completed his bachelors at Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani. After completing his graduation, he worked for three years with Polaris. He did his masters in business administration from Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad.

Career
After completing his management education, Sarathbabu worked for 2 years. In 2006, he started Food King with a seed capital of inr 2000 for delivering food to institutions. As of 2011, it operates in 6 locations in India with an annual turnover of inr 80000000.

Politics
Sarathbabu contested as an independent candidate from the Chennai South constituency during the 2009 Lok Sabha Elections and managed to secure over 15,000 votes. In 2010, he joined Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam, a regional political party, but quit the party later. In the 2011 Tamil Nadu assembly elections, he contested again as an Independent candidate from the Velachery constituency. He lost the elections, ending up third with 7,472 votes. In 2011, Sarathbabu contested for the post of Mayor of Chennai. He is contesting as Kamal Haasan's Makkal Needhi Maiam party's candidate in Alandur (state assembly constituency) in upcoming 2021 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election.

Personal life
In 2010, Sarath started the Hunger Free India, an initiative to feed poor people. He launched an initiative to observe 10 October as Hunger Free Day.

Awards and recognition

 * Pepsi MTV Youth icon (2008)
 * Example to Youth Award (2008)
 * RITZ Chennai Youth Icon (2010)
 * CNN-IBN Award for Young Indian Leader (2011)
 * Honorary Rotarian
 * Honorary Alumnus, XLRI Jamshedpur