When Maanav Karamchandani was 6 years old, he saw a commercial on TV that showed people in India who lacked access to clean drinking water. The ad featured imagery of children his own age and requested donations to build water resources for their community.
“I was very confused,” he admits. “I could walk over to my fridge and just push a button to get a glass of fresh water. I didn’t understand that access to clean drinking water was disparate across different communities.”
He spent the next two months asking his parents questions and begging them to donate to this organization. His dad tried to explain the dynamics of the situation, that not all of the donation money actually goes to helping the people who need it. That, sometimes, it goes to CEOs, staff, administration, and marketing.
But Karamchandani just didn’t understand. And he kept nagging his parents to do something.
“So, they took me to India.”
On a trip to visit family, they spent two days in a small village outside of Delhi, where Karamchandani attended school for a day.
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“They welcomed me with open arms,” he says. “My Hindi wasn’t very good, and they could tell I was from the U.S. from my accent, but no one made me feel any different.”
What stuck out to Karamchandani, though, was a pond with a pump in the middle of the village. While it seemed like a legitimate water access point, the pump was contaminated with E. coli — bacteria that causes diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and fever. So most of the time, local women and girls were tasked with walking over a mile to a leaky pipe to collect large jugs of water. But even that water was tainted.
“And I wanted to do something about it,” he says.
Karamchandani’s parents helped him start a nonprofit called MyJal, which means “my water” in Hindi. This community in Delhi was the first one they began working with.
“Over time, I learned how to lean on teams because you’re only as good as the people around you,” he says. “As I got older, I began working with local organizations, government leaders, school principals, and village leaders to get approvals to set up clean water projects.”
To date, MyJal has provided clean water to over 10,000 families.
Now, Karamchandani is a Morehead-Cain Scholar and senior in the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, where he’s combined his passion for working with teams with his logistical knowledge on running a nonprofit.
Finding his passion
In Fall 2021, Karamchandani began at Carolina as a biomedical engineering major. While he enjoyed his classes, he quickly learned that the isolation and tedium of traditional lab spaces weren’t for him. In response, he started calling Morehead-Cain alumni to learn about their careers and figure out what he wanted to do.
“I learned from a young age that it’s okay to ask questions, and you don’t have to do everything on your own,” he shares. “The alumni have given me fantastic guidance, support, and advice.”
The following spring, while working on a project to redesign the business school minor, Karamchandani met Shimul Melwani, a Kenan-Flagler professor who encouraged him to consider majoring in business administration.
Melwani would go on to mentor Karamchandani for the next three years. She became the person he came to with questions and ideas including pursuing a senior honors thesis, an opportunity for undergraduate students to engage in research.
“We had a lot of great conversations that really guided me forward,” Karamchandani says. “She helped me home in on a specific topic I was interested in.”
“Maanav is one of the most driven and engaged students I have had the pleasure of working with,” Melwani shares. “Over time, I have seen him grow into a confident, strategic thinker, honing his skills and narrowing his focus to a highly competitive, almost impossible field for undergraduates to break into.”
The field? Asset management. More specifically, he’s researching how AI is reshaping the investment management landscape.
Pursuing a project
During the summer of 2024, Karamchandani spent two weeks in San Francisco meeting with startup founders, venture capitalists, and investment managers to learn more about the industry and how they’re incorporating AI into their day-to-day tasks. He combined the feedback he gathered with knowledge gleaned from his Fall 2024 honors thesis class to start his research project.
Under the guidance of business professor Ric Colacito, Karamchandani is exploring how AI is affecting investment management firms — companies that manage a client’s money by investing and growing it over time. He wants to know how AI is impacting their hiring practices, data management and privacy, and returns on investment.
To do this, he created a survey for employees at investment management firms to share how AI is being implemented within their workplace and is following up with them via in-person interviews to learn more.
“No one is hiding from AI,” Karamchandani says. “They want to embrace it. They want to learn about it and see how they can best implement it.”
While many of these firms have been using machine learning for a long time, Karamchandani wants to know how newer technology like generative AI is affecting entry-level jobs and how those effects could impact new graduates entering the workforce.
“There’s a lot of talk across the board about AI replacing jobs,” he says. “A lot of people are saying it’s not going to replace jobs — it’s going to augment jobs.”
Augmentation isn’t necessarily a bad thing, Karamchandani points out. Since AI can handle a lot of menial tasks, firms can focus on hiring employees who specialize in a specific area. But data privacy remains a major concern, as firms don’t want the strategies they use to invest and make money leaked to the public.
“That’s how a firm stays competitive,” he says. “So, people are taking a cautious but enthusiastic approach to implementing AI.”
“Despite our short time working together, I’ve been very impressed with Maanav’s speed, drive, and motivation,” Colacito says. “His project has generated strong interest from industry professionals, many of whom were eager to participate in his research.”
One of the most striking findings from Karamchandani’s project, according to Colacito, is the broad spectrum of opinions on AI’s role.
“Some firms see AI as a major efficiency tool that will complement human expertise, while others believe it could significantly reduce workforce needs,” Colacito explains. “It is a critical question for the next decade, with implications for industry, policymakers, and education alike, as institutions must prepare for a workforce that will look very different from today’s.”
Applying his skills
After graduation, Karamchandani will join T. Rowe Price, an investment management firm based in Baltimore, as an equity research associate analyst. In this role, he will conduct research to support the company’s investment strategies. He credits his success in receiving a job offer before graduation to his mentors at Kenan-Flagler, who stress that his drive helped him get here.
“Maanav’s ability to think outside the box, stay committed, and push himself beyond expectations set him apart, ultimately helping him secure a role in his chosen field,” Melwani shares. “His journey is a testament to his brilliance, work ethic, and leadership potential, and I have no doubt he will continue to make a meaningful impact in his career.”
The Morehead-Cain scholarship, which focuses on developing the next generation of leaders, has also been instrumental to his growth. With the program’s support, Karamchandani flew to California to meet and learn from alumni — and even traveled to Azores, Portugal, through their summer enrichment program to conduct research on sustainable finance in the Iberian Peninsula and surrounding areas.
“The support and guidance I’ve gotten from Morehead-Cain has been instrumental,” Karamchandani says. “It’s been a fantastic opportunity to explore everything UNC has to offer, as well as get a lot of guidance and support for my research process.”