The 10 Most Promising Agriculture Solution providers in 2019

2019 / Vol 08 / Issue 3

COMPANY OF THE MONTH

Dr. Abhay Shendye

THE

10

MOST

Founder & CEO

Pradeep Jaipuria Founder & MD

ENTREPRENEUR OF THE MONTH

Agriculture PROMISING

SOLUTION PROVIDERS IN 2019

Ravi Bhutada Founder & CEO

PJ MARGO AN ECO-FRIENDLY AGRI COMPANY

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Managing Editor Rahul Niraj Executive Editor Shruti Jambhale Art & Design Head Amol Kamble Associate Designer Poonam Mahajan Art & Picture Editor Rahul Kavnekar Co-designer Mayur Koli Business Development Lead Joan Ranbhise Business Development Executive Kajol Karale Technical Specialist Amar, Pratiksha Digital Marketing Manager Prashant Chevale SME-SMO Executives Manoj Shelge Circulation Manager Tanaji sales@insightssuccess.com

AUGUST, 2019 Corporate Ofces: Insights Success Media and Technology Pvt. Ltd. Ofce No. 22 & 510, Rainbow Plaza, Shivar Chowk, Pimple Saudagar, Pune, Maharashtra 411017 Phone - India: +91 7410079881/ 82/ 83/ 84/ 85 Email: info@insightssuccess.in For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.in

Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-602-1754 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.com

Cover Price : RS. 150/Follow ollow us on :

www.facebook.com/insightssuccess/ www

https://twitter.com/insightssuccess

Copyright © 2019 Insights Success Media and Technology Pvt. Ltd., All rights reserved. The content and images used in this magazine should not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from Insights Success Media and Technology Pvt. Ltd. Reprint rights remain solely with Insights Success. Printed and Published by Insights Success Media and Technology Pvt. Ltd. RNI NUMBER: MAHENG/2018/75953

Editorial

I

nnovative technologies have brought revolution to each and every field in human life by making everything smart and intelligent.

Smart devices are turning the face of today’s agriculture and making it smart. To enhance the farmer’s access to better paying agri markets, smart phone technology is acting as a crucial tool. The dynamic growth of the technology has opened up many of the doors in the developing countries. Farmers are also adopting this technology on a fast pace.

Farming is one of the most imperative segment of India. It’s contribution in the India’s GDP is almost around 18%. Agriculture has always been called as the backbone of Indian economy, supporting the livelihoods of the majority of the population. Although India has a significant presence internationally in terms of production, with the time, it has moved far beyond the production of basic agri products.

Technology: An Emerging Elementary Farming Tool

Yes, off course the past strategies have been working successfully transforming India from import dependent to self-sufficient. However, the question still remains in the mind that whether our existing strategies are prioritising the key elements that have the potential to bring prosperity to farmers by providing cost-reducing solutions and achieving desired growth in future.

“New Technologies” might be the substantial part of our agricultural growth?

And, yes! This will certainly change the way of doing agriculture to ensure the future growth.

Alliance with promising agri startups could be gamer changer step taken for the sustainable and innovation-led growth of Indian agriculture. This would be a major turning point into the agribusiness arena which will inject new wave of transformation in the agricultural supply chain.

India has already built a strong name for itself in the global start-up community. It’s time to make agri startups successful and propel India forward as a leader in the agri tech.

Agriculture development is the overriding priority in India’s development strategy. It’s evident that agri startups are taking innovative initiatives for the betterment of India.

“In this new-age of innovative technological solutions, agri startups are catalyzing the smart agriculture.”

Shruti P. Jambhale

CONTEN TENTS Cover ver Story Stor 08 PJ Margo An Eco-Friendly Agri Company

28

Agrocorp Landbase Where Real Estate Grows along with Nature

30

BOHECO

Elevating Hemp from Weed to Wonder

34

FarmLink

An Agri Start-up on a Mission to Transform India’s F&V Supply Chain

Special Profile

16

20

COMPANY OF THE MONTH Swasti Agro A Farmer-Centric Social Venture

36 ENTREPRENEUR OF THE MONTH Vedant Speciality Packaging Developing a Comprehensive End-to-End Agri Solutions

48

eKutir

Accelerating Growth in Farming Communities

24

ARticle 40

Intello Labs

Agri Insights

Disruption of Indian Economy by Agriculture Sector Today

Leveraging Technology and Building Solutions for

CXO Business Buzz

Indian Business Leaders are becoming the Next Role Models

42

46

Raw Pressery

Ross Lifescience Private Limited

Where Health Matters!

An Innovator of Indian Agro Industry

MOST

THE

PROMISING 10 Agriculture SOLUTION PROVIDERS

IN 2019

Forging a New Weapon in Today’s Smart Agriculture

S

mart Farming is key for the future of agriculture. It is modern agriculture management concept through which the quantity and quality of agricultural products can be increased. The access to GPS, soil scanning, data management, and Internet of Things technologies are greatly increasing the effectiveness of pesticides and fertilizers. Also, with the help of smart farming techniques, farmers can better monitor the needs of individual animals and adjust their nutrition correspondingly, thereby preventing disease and enhancing herd health.

Insights Success Magazine brings to you “The 10 Most Promising Agriculture Solution providers in 2019”, which are focused on offering the most innovative, reliable and cost-effective agriculture products and solutions to the customers. This examined list will lessen the search for the organizations to have promising agriculture solution providers in India which are transforming the Indian agriculture sector into the highly evolved market.

In this issue, we have specially featured PJ Margo Pvt. Ltd., as the Cover Story. PJ Margo Pvt. Ltd. offers safe, effective and environment-friendly crop protection and yield enhancement inputs.

We have also introduced Vedant Speciality Packaging as an Entrepreneur of the Month. Vedant Speciality Packaging is a Maharashtra based organization, offering flexible packaging solutions. The offered products of the company are highly demanded by the various industries for their durability and dimensional accuracy. Swasti Agro & Bioproducts Pvt. Ltd. as a Company of the Month. Swasti Agro and Bioproducts Pvt Ltd is working to make farming more sustainable and empowering farmers by giving them the ability to mitigate risk by preventing crop diseases.

We have included AgroCorp Global is a Agrocorp Landbase (P) Ltd is India’s Premier Agro-based Realty Company.

Bombay Hemp Company Pvt. Ltd. is India’s premier industrial hemp and medicinal cannabis company. eKutir is a social enterprise that provides training and data about per-harvest and post-harvest activities and loan acquiring process through its application BLOOOM. FarmLink is India’s first ‘one-stop-shop’ back-end partner for industrial off-takers of Fruits & Vegetables in India, focused on modernising and transforming the supply chain across the country. Intello Labs is Pioneering the Concept of Mobile and Non-Destructive Digital Commodity Grading.

A cold-pressed juice company that delivers unfiltered beverages to its customers. Ross Lifescience is a contract research organization Offering cutting edge technology in the field of analytical chemistry and Eco-toxicology.

We have encompassed CXO Standpoint Indian Business Leaders are becoming the Next Role Models written by Clearly Blue Team.

Also, we have included “Disruption of Indian Economy by Agriculture Sector Today” scripted by our in-house editors in the delightful pages of this magazine.

So, flip the pages of our magazine and enjoy reading!

Cover Story

PJ MARGO An Eco-Friendly Agri Company

MOST

THE

PROMISING 10 Agriculture SOLUTION PROVIDERS

IN 2019

Pradeep Jaipuria Founder & MD

F

ounded in the year 1992, Bangalore-based PJ Margo Pvt. Ltd. is one of the leading Ecofriendly Agri Inputs companies in India. The company is providing wide range of Products and Crop solutions for farmers. It has pioneered the manufacture and export of Azadirachtin Technical and Neem Seed Oil from India to its national and international customers for over twenty five years. The company offers safe, effective, and environment-friendly crop protection and yield enhancement inputs that are certified for use in organic farming and integrated pest management (IPM) programs.

Person Behind The Company Pradeep Jaipuria; Founder and the Managing Director A Chemical Engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Pradeep was responsible for negotiating the Licence and the Supply Agreement with the technology provider WR Grace & Co, USA.Thereafter, he was responsible for Designing and Engineering PJ Margo’s commercial facility for manufacture of Azadirachtin by scaling up the bench scale technology provided by Grace. Subsequently, he set up the formulation unit for Azadirachtin and established the domestic marketing arm, Margo Biocontrol Pvt. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of PJ Margo.

More About PJ Margo PJ Margo Pvt. Ltd. is a joint venture (JV) between the Jaipurias and Certis USA, LLC – a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsui, Japan. Certis USA, LLC is one of the largest international biopesticides company, providing a wide range of biologicals products for crop management such as Insecticides, Fungicides, Bactericides, Miticides,

Nematicides, Herbicides and Abiotic stress management; all derived from natural sources.

The Jaipuria’s have been in the NEEM business from the year 1976 and grew into becoming the largest collectors and processors of NEEM in the country. With the Development of Technology to extract Azadirachtin – the active ingredient – from Neem seed, it was a natural progression to move into manufacturing and marketing of value-added products like Azadirachtin and its formulations for crop protection.

Consequently, PJ Margo was promoted as a 50:50 Joint Venture with WR Grace in 1992. In 1997, Grace sold its biopesticide business to Thermo Trilogy, who in turn sold this business to CERTIS USA LLC, the current JV Partner since 2001.

Margo Group develops, manufactures, and markets natural Bio-pesticides, Bio-stimulants and Bio Fertilizers of microbial origins under the brand name “MARGO”. Several other products were also added to the company’s product portfolio including - Bio-active Humic Substance based Biostimulants, Bio- Insecticides, Bio-fertilizers and Adjuvants.

All products made by the company and sold under the brand name MARGO are approved for use in Organic Agriculture.

Margo has entered into partnerships with leading Fertilizer and Agrochemical companies to supply products under their label and through their marketing networks to increase the distribution footprint for quality Agri Inputs to the farming community.

Unique Selling Point Margo has a very strong technical base and Margo’s products are backed by experienced manufacturing and marketing

Delivering Enriched Solutions MARGO produces Azadirachtin Technical, Neem Oil and a range of Bio-Insecticides, Bio-fertilizers, Bio Stimulants and Adjuvants, categorized as given below:

Bio- Insecticides 1. Azadirachtin Technical Powder.

2. Neem formulations in EC form: a. Ecotin® - with 5.0% Azadirachtin; b. Econeem Plus® - with 1.0% Azadirachtin; c. Econeem® - with 0.3% Azadirachtin; d. Neem 1500 – with 0.15% Azadirachtin and e. Neem 300 – with 0.03% Azadirachtin.

3. Tricure® - Neem Oil based fungicide 4. Various microbial bio-control agents such as: a. Ecoderma® - Trichoderma viride (1.0% WP ) b. Ecoderma H® - Trichoderma harzianum (1.0% WP ) c. Ecomonas® - Pseudomonas uorescens (1.0% WP ) and d. Ecocill® - Verticillium chlamydosporium (1.0 % WP) 5. Imported - for sale within India: a. Deln® - Bascillus Thuringiensis (Bt-k –) and b. Basamid® - Dazomet Technical a Soil Sterilant

Bio Stimulants 6. Bio-active Humic substances: a. Ecohume® Liquid and b. Ecohume GR® Granules.

Adjuvants 7. Adjuvants as follows: a. Ecospread® - a Super Spreading agent and b. Margowet® - a Wetting agent.

Bio-fertilizers 8. Ecorrhiza® - VAM based bio-fertilizer, in Granular form 9. Range of 6 different formulations for Nutrient management - Bio-fertilizers with NPK. a. Ecotobactor® - Azotobacter based Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria b. Ecozobium® - Rhizobium based Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria c. Ecoshoot® - Phosphate solubilizing Bacteria d. Ecoboost® – Potash mobilizing Bacteria e. Ecotonic® - Azotobacter Based NPK Consortia and f. Ecomagic® – Rhizobium Based NPK Consortia

Products in the pesticide ranges are registered with CIB and those under the fertilizer range are registered with FCO. Most of the products are certied for use in Organic Farming by Ecocert and IMO Controls.

MARGO products are effective as part of Integrated Pest Management Programmes and help provide Insect Resistance Management and Residue Management in crops.

Shoot Borers. This has also been a great success in the Cotton growing areas for controlling the Pink or American Bollworm. Margo believes that the 10000 ppm formulation is the best suited for most economical and effective delivery of Azadirachtin to the plants.

Ecohume® - a Plant-based Bio-stimulant – has been developed in-house from Renewable Agri resources. This product is performing excellently across the farming sectors – from Nursery to open Fields, Plantations, Horticulture and Floriculture crops under varied climatic and field conditions, by addressing the problems of abiotic stress and nutrient uptake from the soil. teams. The quality and product developments are overseen by an in-house R&D, duly recognised by DSIR (Department of Science and Industrial Research). As a company, it is committed to manufacture quality products and support agriculture in an Eco-Friendly manner.

Margo has two flagship products, for the Indian Market: Econeem Plus® - The is a EC formulation made with Azadirachtin a.i. and Neem Oil and has 1% or 10000 ppm of Azadirachtin Technical and provides all the Limonoids for effective insecticidal action. This product has been successfully and effectively used in Plantations; Horticulture and Fruits such as Grapes etc – specially against Fruit and

Driving Force Behind the Company’s Success Jaipuria’s long association with procurement and deep knowledge of the processing of Neem is an inherent strength.

This along with the passion and commitment to providing safe, effective and environment-friendly crop protection solutions for agriculture is the driving force behind the success of the company.

The main difficulty faced by the company was the initial nonacceptance of bio-products by the Indian farmer, mainly on account of a large number of substandard and non-registered products available in the market. Those would normally not

perform and thereby gave Neem based products a bad name. Lot of hard work went into overcoming these issues and Neem products took a long time to be accepted as an effective agricultural product in the Indian market.

Giving Back to the Society The CSR initiatives taken by the company are wholly focused on child education and nourishment and women empowerment. The company sponsors Mid-Day meals program for children through the NGO “Akshaya Patra” in Karnataka.

Driving to the Future

“We offer eco-friendly and economical “

crop care products to farmers

The MARGO brand in the market is synonymous with high product quality; it has been regularly recognized as the Highest Exporter of Neem Oil from India. And, now more than ever, the company is growing at a rapid speed. The company’s turnover is approx. 100 Crores and it is aiming to grow by 100% in the next 3-4 Years.

A Piece of Advice for the Budding Entrepreneurs Pradeep said “A sincere advice to the budding entrepreneurs – Take care of the farmers’ interests first. Too many companies are still involved in marketing substandard inputs, leading to loss of crop and income for the farmer. These entrepreneurs need to maintain high ethical standards which will ensure a win-win situation for them and the farming community.”

Yes I would like to subscribe to Insights Success Magazine.

Global Subscription Date :

Name : Address :

Telephone : Email :

City :

State :

Zip :

Country :

Cheque should be drawn in favour of : INSIGHTS SUCCESS MEDIA AND TECH PVT. LTD.

CORPORATE OFFICE Insights Success Media and Technology Pvt. Ltd. Ofď€ ce No. 22 & 510, Rainbow Plaza, Shivar Chowk, Pimple Saudagar, Pune, Maharashtra 411017 Phone - India: +91 7410079881/ 82/ 83/ 84/ 85

USA: 302-319-9947 Email: info@insightssuccess.in For Subcription: www.insightssuccess.in

Swasti Agro A Farmer-Centric Social Venture

T

he Indian economy was largely dependent on agriculture until industrialization and globalization created an impact and changed the balance. While agriculture is still a major part of the economy and culture, the gradual shift is evident and increasing. Agriculture is critical, and the growing population to be fed keeps increasing the pressure, but the sector is facing a major crisis.

Depleting soil productivity, shrinking farmlands, dwindling labour, low profits are just some of the reasons for the growing unrest in the sector and farmers. These are giving rise to another national catastrophe, farmer suicide, which have been in the news since the 1990s and increasing. Latest reports suggest that on an average there are 10 cases of farmer suicides every day? While a lot is being done and said about it, the problem persists and the solution lies in changing the way the problem is being approached.

Solutions are All About the Right Approach Proactive measures that revolve around the problems bringing on the crisis need to be taken with a farmercentric approach. Pune-based Swasti Agro and Bioproducts Pvt Ltd believes that the majority of the problems of the farmers can be solved if the ecosystem adopts a farmer-centric approach and is working its part on it. As per the company, a big concern all over the globe is that affordability of farming activity is diminishing day by day. One single factor that can change this scenario is the mitigation of diseases of crops. Farmers do not have effective tools to prevent diseases of crops and they lose on an average of about 30% of the crop year on year. And if the season is bad this risk increases to over 90%. With a process loss risk of 30 -90%, any activity is deemed to be unsuccessful. A true farmercentric approach requires products, services, and channels to evolve mechanism(s) that maximize the profitability of individual unorganized farmers spread out across the country.

16

Dr. Abhay Shendye Founder, CEO

“Our vision is to eradicate Food security crisis arising around the globe with healthy organic technology” | August 2019

COMPANY OF THE MONTH

Swasti’s Solutions Swasti is a farmer-centric social venture developing innovative sustainable inputs, processes and channels. Swasti has developed products for the prevention of crop diseases. It also provides analysis based advice to farmers so that they can take learned decisions and save costs as well as crops. Several farmers in Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Gujarat have been using these products for the last 3 – 5 years. The company is now spreading its wings to Bihar and Nepal and has recently started its subsidiary in East Africa. Swasti’s technology is being patented in India as well as Africa.

The first product Swasti brought out was for prevention of bacterial blight of pomegranate. The farmers who coupled the use of preventive products with proper nutrition management could control the expression of this deadly disease very successfully.

Swasti has developed crop planning schedule for pomegranate based on climate, and advisory on nutrition and disease management. Now it has products for the prevention of diseases of vegetables caused by fungi, bacteria, and nematodes. Not only the products prevent diseases, but also promote the growth of plants thereby improving the productivity and profitability. Swasti’s products broadly fall into the following categories: Agriculture/Horticulture Kitchen Garden Aquarium Aquaponics/Hydroponics August 2019 |

Where the Grass is truly Greener – Advantage Swasti Prevention of diseases due to Swasti’s products results in farmers getting more yield.

Moreover, the production is eco-friendly and uses a few toxic chemicals. Thus farmers – particularly those who can export the residue-free produce – are getting better rates for the produce. While assessing the prevalent condition in a particular farmer’s field the company advises the exact dosage of products even at the cost of losing some sale. Even if the suggested solution or product is unavailable with Swasti, it suggests other brand products that would work well as per the analysis. It runs two special programs too: l

l

Swasti’s three-pronged program “BioAvert I” gives preventive solutions in the form of blocking pathogen entry, increasing beneficial microbes and stimulating plant defense mechanism.

The “HiFarm” services provide advise based on – Hyperspectral imaging, Field analysis techniques, root zone analysis and microscopy.

As a bonus, all of Swasti’s products are certified organic products – perfectly safe for humans, environment, and therefore can provide higher rates for

“We want to empower farmers by giving them the ability to mitigate risk by preventing crop diseases” the produce. This helps in generating a better return on investment for the farmers.

Re-fabricating the Social Structure Swasti believes in dedicated R&D to develop products that create multiple impacts and strengthen the social fabric of the agrarian society. Recently, while commercializing the products for disease prevention, it conducted research on the nutrition of crops and particularly efficient and effective delivery of micronutrients. This patented product, during manufacturing, requires a waste material – ‘biogas slurry’ – from farmers. This new product is already making a huge impact on dairy and agriculture. Because of the win-win 17

“Our specific focus is prevention of diseases of crops, and point of care preventive diagnosis”

situation, farmers, as well as dairies, are interested in the processing. This improves the profitability for the dairy farmer, almost by three times, when compared with the selling of milk alone. Dairy cooperatives together can reach 70% of farmers in India. Each small farmer having 2 – 3 animals can get extra income up to Rs 6000 per month.

This also creates an opportunity for backward integration. When the dairy cooperative unit also engages itself in the backward integration and takes the product back to farmers, it will help many more farmers by providing a quality product at a reasonable cost.

Swasti plans to support such backward integration activity with analysis based advice service for their farmers. Such an innovative farmer-centric channel will ensure that the money is generated and circulated within the farming community. Swasti trusts that this channel will establish very quickly and spread fast across the length and 18

breadth of India, and deliver products for nutrition, disease prevention and many more other categories; strictly to be deployed based on learned advice. When this is achieved, Swasti believes it would have given back to the farming community, the support that was much desired.

Research – The Foundation Creating a comprehensive farmercentric approach isn’t a one-man task, to begin with. While Dr Abhay Shendye, the founder of Swasti, started his journey towards inculcating farmer-centric approach in each employee and activity of the company, it took the backing from institutions, and buyers to realize the potential. Dr Abhay has been the backbone of the technology development and organization culture at Swasti. As a child, he would visit his grandfather’s fields and help milk cows or sow rice.

This childhood activity led to a passionate love for agriculture that he later channeled into his company, Swasti. Under his guidance, the

company has also developed an Android application ‘Happy Crop’ to support the implementation of plant healthcare.

More to Come Swasti has been bestowed with several awards such as BIG and SBIRI (BIRAC). IIGP (DST), and Millennium Alliance (FICCI –USAID and DFID) have been a huge support for product development. Now the company is considering a different set of institutions as its partners to build unique backward integration channels.

Besides institutional support, Swasti – as a team – has overcome difficult times with the support from friends, and family. Dr Abhay advises, “Any young entrepreneur who wants to venture in the agriculture sector should keep it in mind that the picture looks rosy, but meeting the two ends month on month is a daunting task. You need to have immense patience to even make a visible dent.”

| August 2019

Ravi Bhutada Founder & CEO

20

| August 2019

ENTREPRENEUR OF THE MONTH

VEDANT SPECIALITY PACKAGING Developing a Comprehensive End-to-End Agri Solutions

“Our offered products are highly demanded by the various industries for their durability and dimensional accuracy”

August 2019 |

21

“On a mission to makeover the life of 10 lakh people for understanding the economics of farming”

T

he transformation in the modern lifestyle has increased the demand for packed products. With a vast and extensive experience, one of the trustworthy organization, Vedant Speciality Packaging was constituted in the year 2013. The organization is involved in the manufacturing and wholesaling of a broad assortment of Agricultural Films, Shrink Film, Crop Cover, Fruit Cover. Also, it provides Project Management Consultancy Services.

The Leading Lights Vedant Speciality Packaging is growing gradually under the valuable guidance of Ravi Bhutada, the Founder and CEO of the company. He completed his diploma in mechanical engineering. With his Partner, Manisha Bhutada, a radiologist, the company has been able to achieve high-level success in a limited period of time.

Associated with the Rotary club, Ravi received many national and state-level awards from the Rotary International and twice for creating awareness among farmers. He is a member of JCI international, too.

The Preservers The company has several teams of well qualified and experienced professionals

22

who work as Technicians, Engineers, Quality controllers, Administrative personnel, and Warehouse and packaging personnel. Apart from this, there is also a team of eleven people in sales, specially assigned to look out for Maharashtra and Karnataka.

“Our main suppliers are MNC’s, who are acting as a backbone for us.” said Ravi. Further, he also said that “There are more than 120-130 customers, who are utilizing our products and services for the past 7 years on a daily basis.

Thus, I would love to call them as cofounders for our company.”

Quality Assurance Being a quality-focused organization, since incorporation, Vedant Speciality Packaging is involved in offering a broad assortment of Agricultural Films.

The offered products are highly demanded by the various industries for their durability and dimensional accuracy. It offers these products in various specifications to suit the everevolving needs and demands of their valued client’s.

Offered products are assembled by taking optimum quality components.

Apart from this, all the offered products are quality approved against various quality standards by the quality controllers. The offered range is also

appreciated by the clients for their attractive features.

Factors that make Vedant Special • • • • • •

Ethical business practices Client-centric approach Industry-leading price Customized solution Unmatched quality Timely delivery

R&R “On the daily basis we get appreciations/ rewarded and recognized (R&R) by many of the firms, clients, and the organization on the national and on the state level” proudly states Ravi.

They have a repeat of their customers.

According to Ravi, 70% of the business comes from the existing clients while 30% of the business comes from the new once. The company got rewarded and recognized (R&R) for various reasons listed below: • Started giving crop cover for cotton in Maharashtra and Karnataka st • 1 company to start crop cover with the pomegranate • Drastically improved crop cover for vegetables • Delivering valuable products

| August 2019

More About Company The leading manufacturer and wholesaler of Agricultural Films, Shrink Film, Crop Cover, Fruit Cover. Also, provide Project Management Consultancy Services.

• Nature of Business -Manufacturer

• Total Number of Employees Upto 10 People

• Year of Establishment -2013 • Legal Status of Firm Partnership Firm Registered under Indian Partnership Act 1932 • Annual Turnover of Rs. 2-5 Crore

• Working for the betterment of farmers The Way Forward According to the well-known researchers’ survey, packaging for fresh vegetable cut and fresh fruit cuts that will be the upcoming market, will be required to give a better life to vegetables and fruits. Through the packaging, the freshness of the fruits and vegetables can be preserved up to 72 hrs. Also, the wastage of the products can be minimized.

Going with the market trend, Vedant Speciality Packaging is planning to reach half of the country on or before 2024. On the business front, the company will reach to 50 crore

August 2019 |

turnover by 2024, as per their crafted plan. “Up to 2023, we will be the only one-of-its-kind supplier with the combo of 50 products which will be unique.” stated Ravi.

Advise for the Newbies “Go with the market survey. Go with the products or services which will be having the existence of min 10-15 yrs.

Do the things which will indicate your purpose of life and passion. Don’t listen to the world, because there are lots of possible failures.” stated Ravi.

Further, he said, “There is a lot of potential in this area. There is a lot of work need to do, and Anybody can do it.”

“We are creating awareness for the betterment for farmers”

23

Disruption of

Indian

Economy

Agriculture by by

Sector Today

T

he primary source of livelihood for about 58% of India’s population is Agriculture. Gross Value Added by agriculture, forestry, and fishing is deduced at Rs. 18.53 trillion in Fy18.

The Indian food industry is looking for huge growth, increasing its contribution to world food trade every year. Due to its immense potential for value addition within the food processing industry, the Indian food and grocery market has been realized as the sixth-largest in the world, with retail contributing to 70% of the sales. The Indian food processing industry amounts to 32% of the country’s total food market. Being one of the largest industries in India, it is ranked fifth, in terms of production, consumption, export, and expected growth. It contributes to Gross Value Added (GVA) in around 8.80-8.39% of

24

| August 2019

AGRI INSIGHTS

Disruption of

Indian

Economy

Agriculture by by

Sector Today a ay

August 2019 |

25

Manufacturing and Agriculture respectively, along with 13% of India’s exports and six percent of total industrial investment.

The Effects of Untimely Showers Unexpected visits from the rain every now and then are not something new for the people of India. As the climatic conditions all over the globe are making a bold statement by revising its course of occurrence, the problem has become more evident! Pollution and over-utilization of the resources have led to a drastic change in the environment which in turn has been affecting the lives of every individual to a certain level. Most common changes are quite resultant, through the natural disasters that are disrupting everyone’s lives. Floods and storms have been observed as the most common occurrence in the urban and semi-urban areas.

The people that are most influenced by the presence, absence and untimely arrival of the rain is, Indian farmers.

Rainwater has always been the main source of irrigation for the farmers. Most of the time earlier, it was the only source even. The whole agricultural practice revolves around the rain in our country. Now the problem initiated by these untimely downpours results in huge damage to crops. All of this yields less income for the farmers and most of the time the losses are so heavy, that they are forced to take some unnecessary steps.

The need for advanced technological resources has become paramount. To make them available at economical prices, the government requires to ensure that the right amount of finances are allocated at the proper stages. The farmers in India have seen tremendous changes in the agricultural industry. Though, the only difference has been the inculcation of the said changes. There are plenty of resources available in the market, that one can employ to ensure the safety and efficiency of the crops’ right from the plantation to the cultivation process. All things boil down to the affordability of the products and services of such tech-enabled advancements. One of the reasons that farmers remain unaware of such advancements is the required information is not communicated to them. Now when the heavy rainfall wrecks all the hard work completed by the farmers, the preventive measures which could have been made available to them if the proper channels were involved - goes to void.

The Eminent Safeguarding To countermeasure such acts, the government of India has taken various actions to dilute the situation to the best extent possible. There are still a lot of changes and up-gradation that needs to be maintained so that farmers would have better infrastructure and resources to fight back and preserve the life and quality of the crops.

The Indian Government has initiated different programs and projects to assist the agriculture sector. Some of which include, Pradhanmantri Gram Sinchai Yojana: The scheme strives to irrigate the field of every farmer by improving the use of water efficiently - in order to achieve the motto ‘Per Drop More Crop’. All in all the scheme ensures improved access to irrigation. Around 285 new irrigation projects have been undertaken in 2018 to provide irrigation for 18.8 million hectares of land. As per Union Budget 2019-20, the scheme has been allocated $565.16 million. Also, Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY): This scheme helps in motivating groups of farmers to take up organic farming.

The NBFCs also have made various contributions in uplifting the Indian farmers. Some institutions are even involved in the growth of women from rural areas, with respect to their self-employment and sustainable progress.

Providing subsidiary services at right time and at the right moment makes the difference. The NBFCs are capitalizing on this opportunity while lending a hand in the overall Indian Agriculture Sector.

India is on a growth spree and is expected to obtain the ambitious aim of multiplying the farmer’s income twofold from the current situation in 2022. The agricultural sector in India is designated to generate optimum momentum in the coming few years due to increased investments in agricultural infrastructures. The resources such as irrigation facilities, warehousing, and cold storages made available by the government have ensured a significant assist in the overall growth process of the sector. Moreover, the increased application of genetically modified crops is proving to be a boon for Indian farmers. India is on the verge to be self-sufficient in pulses in the near future. All of this due to the combined efforts of the scientists working with early maturing varieties of pulses along with the increase in minimum support price.

- Darshan Parmar

26

| August 2019

investment, but to draw people towards farming, it is very important to ensure that the process is easy and the economics are quantifiable.

Their aim is to offer a simple, easy and thorough process of buying and maintaining a farmhouse with complete transparency in all transactions and timely delivery. The entire range of services is packaged to ensure a hassle free experience.

Arush Nagpal, Co-founder

Ayan Nagpal, Co-founder

Agrocorp Landbase Where Real Estate Grows along with Nature

D

ecades ago, India was primarily a farming country.

With rapid development, industrialization and urbanization, the focus shifted from agriculture to other means of employment. However, owning a farmhouse remains a retirement dream for most Indians -a reminiscent of the past, where almost every house had a kitchen garden of its own.

Agrocorp ensures: 1. Purchase of encumberance free large parcels of land: All lands are procured only after thorough due diligence of the title in revenue records. Agrocorp has bought and sold over 20 million square feet of agri-land across eight projects and considers the following factors while doing so: • Access from the motorable road • The soil quality of the land • Proximity to major developing zones of the area.

• Proximity to national highway and major landmarks 2. Develop amenities: • Boundaries: They have a team of skilled workers and advanced machinery set up to ensure fast completion of the boundary of large land parcels in order to develop gated farming societies.

• Land Levelling and Cleaning: Agrocorp’s skilled team of supervisors and workers, with latest equipment, ensure all smaller land parcels are delivered as flat land and are free of all the wild trees, bushes, stones etc. to enable best farming practices.

A lot of our modern population wants to take up activities bringing them close to nature and make it a part of their lifestyle, but they don’t have the knowledge and the time to set up the basics. Agrocorp recognized this opportunity and introduced a concept where real estate and agriculture go hand in hand.

Agrocorp, India’s first organized Agro-Real Estate company, is a pioneer in developing communities of farm lands for their investors, cultivating timber forests and generating positive cash flows, quantifying the investment model not just with an asset heavy start but also adding value post sales by implementing various Agroforestry models.

The Idea/Spark Agrocorp believes in the power of agriculture as a smart

28

• Water Source and Irrigation System: Their specialized team of traditional and modern water point locaters and geologists mark potential points of water sources. All of Agrocorp’s farming societies have underground water | August 2019

MOST

THE

PROMISING 10 Agriculture SOLUTION PROVIDERS

IN 2019

‘‘

lines, connected to each plot from the borewell for seamless water availability. They also have tie-ups with leading irrigation companies for installation of irrigation system as required.

Ayan Nagpal and Arush Nagpal are the young entrepreneurs behind Agrocorp.

• Plantation and Maintenance: If the clients don’t want to undertake an activity themselves, Agrocorp also provides the option to setup commercial timber plantation and maintenance of “Melia Dubia”, till maturity. They have an in-house team trained on the development and maintenance made availablel for a nominal additional payment.

Ayan is a go-getter in life and a professional enthusiast who has played a major role since the inception of the company.

His visionary, detailed, assertive and perfectionist approach has created a path which is taking Agrocorp to great heights at a steady pace.

Post-possession Agrocorp also offers shared services like 24 hours security, road maintenance and cleaning of land once in a year against a monthly maintenance amount.

The Glitches Agrocorp wanted to explore the idea of “organized large scale farming” and understood the fundamentals. But as they moved ahead, they faced a lot of difficulties to get the basics right: The Ideators Requirement

Opportunity

Large land bank and capital for infrastructure setup

Acquiring land is primary and most vital investment. Without proper knowledge of law and administration, the money invested can be on risk.

Setting up the infrastructure

Farming is all about the right infrastructure and the right inputs at the right time and a lot of effort.

Buyback assurance of produce

The biggest drawback of farming is that the farmer has fixed input cost, but the output prices of the produce are dependent on the market conditions.

Trained Manpower

Right maintenance is the key to success in terms of production capacity. Absence of trained and skilled farmers in tier 2 & tier 3 towns can make the farming very difficult.

August 2019 |

‘‘

3. Delivery and Possession: Agrocorp also provides a separate entry for every farm, electricity connection for borewell functioning, internal metal roads for easy approach to each farm and street lights along the roads. After ensuring all amenities function properly, the completed farm-lands are handed over to the clients through a legal, transparent process.

To make farming organised, it is essential to ensure that the basics are organised

Arush is a cool-headed visionary and financial planner who holds expertise in channelizing finances and managing operational requirements of the company. He has immense knowledge of all technical aspects in the entire scope of the business environment. This has helped turn the company’s vision into reality.

Profitable Ideas for Everyone Any profitable business today gets scalability from an increase in the volume of users i.e. demand. As an organization, Agrocorp understands that in today’s era it is very essential for the consumer/people to understand the value of something, to be able to attract their attention both in terms of money and time. Ayan says, “The modern population will invest their time into farming practices only if it is not complicated and is beneficial. By combining Real Estate and Agriculture, we have been able achieving that by making the process simple and transparent.”

Agrocorp’s unique ideas have enabled people to • Affordable farm houses with basic amenities • Appropriate unit sizes (quarter, half and one acre) • Shared maintenance facilities • Transparency in all transactions where a majority of payment is accepted after the completion of work on site Taking Care of the Future It is Agrocorp’s vision to continuously innovate investments. The plan is to increase its communities to more than 2500 acres by the end of 2023. This reciprocates into 2500 new farming families and 2500 new influencers who will stay connected to the roots and encourage others to invest and earn. Agrocorp’s services not only reap financial benefits but also enables the owners to do their bit in giving back to society and the environment, by making the community a greener place to live.

29

and business units under the parent organization.

Avnish Pandya, Co-founder and Director of Research & Development | Business Head – Indocannabinoid (BOHECO’s medical cannabis division) A self-taught science analyst who explores the universe of Hemp. Coming from an analytical background, he combines insights from the business and policy with those from scientific domains in his revelations about Hemp. He heads the medicine business at BOHECO. Chirag Tekchandaney, Co-founder and Director of Marketing & Human Resources | Business Head – B Label (BOHECO’s apparel & accessories division) Chirag is responsible for key people-related functions. His experience in marketing at his previous organisation helped amplify BOHECO’s brand value.

Wonder He is at the helm of the hemp garments & accessories business and leads the way for developing hemp-based textile products. He aspires to make a dent in several different markets where hemp is yet to penetrate.

BOHECO

Elevating Hemp from Weed to

‘

O

ne man’s trash is another man’s treasure.’ The idiom perfectly sums up the fact that the value of an object doesn’t actually lie within itself but depends on the person evaluating it. For a regular person, hemp might seem like a weed that can grow effortlessly and serves no purpose but for those who understand its medicinal and other properties, it is an opportunity. It was during a regular expedition to the rural countryside focused around solar electrification, that seven friends happened to notice the ubiquitous growth of Cannabis. At around the same time, one of them happened to visit West Australia, where he was exposed to the rapid rise of Hemp (Cannabis) as a base commodity all over the country. These two moments combined to create a larger Eureka moment, where they began to ask the right questions about why haven't similar endeavours happened before in India and what could be done to kick-start the nascent domestic Hemp (Cannabis) industry from scratch. The result—Bombay Hemp Company Pvt. Ltd. (BOHECO) – India’s premier industrial hemp and medicinal cannabis company. It is an Agro-based enterprise re-imagining the future of Indian agriculture and sustainable living with hemp as its lens.

BOHECO’s Seven BOHECO is a brainchild of seven co-founders each of who are extremely instrumental in driving multiple functions

30

Delzaad Deolaliwala, Co-founder and Director of Accounting & Legal | Business Head – Athulya Krishi Foundation (BOHECO’s farmer empowerment division) Having understood the intricacies of India’s legal framework, Delzaad works to develop a holistic set of regulations guiding the company’s efforts. He mobilizes resources to advance BOHECO’s research about the various legal aspects of Cannabis cultivation in India.

Jahan Peston Jamas, Co-founder and Director of Strategy & Collaborations | Business Head – Nanobinoids (BOHECO’s innovation lab) Jahan undertakes the company’s strategic engagements with domestic and international stakeholders. He engages with academicians, scientific experts, and hemp-entrepreneurs from around the world to build and strengthen the company’s network.

Sanvar Oberoi, Co-founder and Director of Finance | Business Head – Hemp Fabric Lab (BOHECO’s fabric division) Sanvar ensures financial sustainability by macro-planning business activities. Always on the lookout to alleviate farmer plight, he strives to leverage market forces for the | August 2019

MOST

THE

PROMISING 10 Agriculture SOLUTION PROVIDERS

IN 2019

Sumit Shah, Co-founder and Director of Operations & Supply Chain | Business Head – BOHECO Textiles (BOHECO’s fibres & yarns division) Sumit ensures seamless logistics for the hemp raw material and products, from farmers and artisans to urban markets.

He promotes efficient permaculture techniques for cultivation and post-harvest handling and oversees ground operations.

Yash P. Kotak, Co-founder and Director of Business Development & Media | Business Head – BOHECO Life (BOHECO’s health & wellness division) Yash oversees all internal and external communication with the aim to optimize offline and online media engagements. He strategizes BOHECO’s positioning in the hemp industry with an incisive business sense to create impact at the grassroots.

Exploring the Versatility of Hemp Hemp is an extremely versatile crop with over 25000 proven uses from tree-free paper, bio-plastic, building material, etc.. BOHECO is developing a platform for anything and everything hemp where it can empower creators and innovators with hemp in a form most suitable for research. Its core brand proposition is food, clothing, shelter and medicine all from one crop – Hemp/Cannabis.

Its current product portfolio includes: 1. Hemp fibres & yarns 2. Natural hemp clothing & accessories 3. Hemp & Hemp blended fabrics 4. Hemp health & nutrition BOHECO in its endeavour isn’t just introducing hemp in a new light, but also harnessing a positive triple bottom line impact across rural communities. It is creating livelihood empowerment, training and skill-addition and economic independence related opportunities arising out of Industrial Hemp and Hemp based products for farmers and artisans across the hilly regions of North India. BOHECO majorly engages with the farmers and artisans of the Kedarnath Valley, who were affected by the flash floods triggered by cloudbursts in 2013. This partnership has a principal focus around social and economic rejuvenation horizons arising out of the creation of a unique cottage industry with respect to Handloom based Industrial Hemp products such as Shawls, upholstery, Stoles, Accessories, etc.

gradually being adopted within the agriculture ecosystem.

With the high nutritional benefits of Hemp and Hemp seed oil being publicly documented over several decades, Hemp could prove a plethora of positive benefits to communities across India in terms of food security.

With the advent of new age technologies in the relevant domains of plant food based meat substitutes as well as the

‘‘

Our design fuses the potential of hemp with the existing industries of agriculture, healthcare, textiles and technology, to bring together community, impact and value

‘‘

greater good. He is the voice of the company at key forums and weaves professional networks central to its operations.

growing rise for functional food groups, BOHECO anticipates that several strategic solutions such as vertical farming and IOT integrated agricultural systems would provide the perfect balance towards enhancing the efficiency in the production & distribution of food across the nation.

Opportunity – For Those who Seek The founders point out that more than half of our country’s workforce is involved in agricultural activities. As the company is moving towards more sustainable and healthier ways, it’s very essential to understand the market requirement and all the more crucial to work alongside the government considering the fact that the entire population is essentially dependent upon agriculture for food. Reckoning the underlying opportunity, their advice to agri-entrepreneurs is to “plug in and solve issues for the long run which will ensure the sustainability of our nation and planet earth.”

Aiming High BOHECO aims to be the premier and pioneering platform for Industrial and Medicinal Hemp in India. It wants to work with public and private stakeholders to establish a regulatory and scientifically efficacious ecosystem for Hemp cultivation and utilization across India, Asia, and globally. BOHECO aims to reaffirm India's rightful place as a global force to be reckoned with in the Hemp and Cannabis domain, thereby realigning the geopolitical, socio-economic and environmental balance associated with this Wonder crop.

Seismic Shift Boosted by Technology Industrial Hemp cultivation is one such global development MM 2019

|

31

farmers and better quality & prices for the consumers by maintaining the shortest life cycle from production to consumption and by introducing global practices in agronomy. FarmLink is one of the four ventures incubated by Pioneering Ventures (PV), a venture development firm which incubates companies in agriculture space with an attempt to solve the issues faced by the sector and positively influence the lives of thousands of farmers in India.

FarmLink engages in establishing a strong and steady relationship with farmers, while providing Ravish Chavan, COO extension services and knowledge that improve the productivity and quality of the produce. The company believes in transparency in the transaction with an assurance of timely payment within 48 AN AGRI START-UP ON A MISSION TO hours. The company focuses on helping TRANSFORM INDIA’S F&V SUPPLY CHAIN farmers in building viable businesses and becoming successful agricultural entrepreneurs thus creating an impact on the ndia is one of the world’s largest producers of a variety entire rural eco-system.

The agri-startup intends to reduce of fruits and vegetables, with an ever-increasing agricultural wastage to less than 5 percent in comparison to demand for fresh produce. However, the farmers, as the country’s average of 30 percent by streamlining the well as consumers, are suffering at multiple levels such as value chain.

Majority of this saving translates into increased lack of knowledge of good agricultural practices and use of farmers’ earnings. substandard inputs leading to lower yield and income for

FarmLink

I

the farmers. Wastage across the supply chain due to inefficiencies in harvest, post-harvest and storage activities resulting in loss of quality and weight of produce for the farmers. Inaccessibility to off-take markets for the farmers.

A long chain of intermediaries between farmers and consumers leading to lower prices and incomes for the farmers and higher prices for the end consumers.

Technology helping Farmers reduce Agri Wastage and get Better Pricing FarmLink, an Indian fruit and vegetable (F&V) supply and chain company, aims to address these major gaps in the Indian agriculture space by fundamentally transforming and modernizing the critical parts of India’s F&V supply chain that would include strong elements of technology and digitization. The Mumbai based agri–startup ensures minimum wastage of the produce, higher incomes for the

34

The Strongest Pillar

Ravish Chavan, COO of FarmLink, plays a key role in improving the company’s operational efficiency and bring in process discipline. Prior to his appointment as COO, Ravish was heading investor relations and transaction advisory at Pioneering Ventures – the company that incubated FarmLink. He holds an MBA in Finance and CFA and FRM charters.

Synchronizing Demand and Supply of Agricultural Produce Since working with farmers involves a variety of crops and a typical vegetable basket consists of 20-25 SKU’s. The company ensures that it works on the right demand plan with the farmers in order to match the supply plan required

| August 2019

MOST

THE

PROMISING 10 Agriculture SOLUTION PROVIDERS

IN 2019

At FarmLink’s collection center, when the farmers get their fresh produce, it goes through the firsthand quality check by the trained staff then only the finest fruits and vegetables are hand-picked and separated from the rest. Once the sorting is done, farmers get a receipt and the payment is credited directly to their account. The quality products undergo ozone water wash which removes surface mud, after which the products are taken to the dry area where excess water is removed making them ready to be packaged. Once the goods are packaged, been weighed and tagged systematically, the goods are ready to be distributed. This whole batch process is completed by the afternoon time so that it reaches the retailer shelves by early mornings the next day as per the requirements, thereby shortening the supply cycle and reducing wastage.

village and the plot that was used to grow it. They will know when it was sown and harvested, the incidence of pests, if any, and so on.

FarmLink is just not a link between the farmers and consumers but also empowers the farmers making them

‘‘

We bring you the experience to shop fresh fruits and vegetables directly from farms

‘‘

by the customers. The company identifies progressive farmers based on their soil health, present farming practices and a willingness to learn, after which the expert team visit the farm to study the requirements and help the farmers get the best quality yield. The data is studied for every farmer to help them track their progress and push them to realize their potential. While the farm-to-fork activities are integrated, these complicated activities require FarmLink to work with farmers, provide procurement platforms for them and in turn modernize the whole supply chain.

economically independent and improving the standard of living. It is the new approach for India’s agriculture sector, which not only provides quality food to the consumers but also transforms lives in rural India. The company firmly believe that only empowered farmers can lead to a healthier life of more than 1.3 billion people in the country.

FarmTrace – An app that Tracks Fruits and Vegetables for Consumers FarmLink is beta-testing an app called FarmTrace that traces a product from the farm till it reaches the consumer.

The app provides traceability and information to farmers, managers, as well as consumers, to know the location of the produce, where it was grown and the nutritional factors that made it. There are two kinds of applications, that are running simultaneously in the operations of the app. One is field application for internal purposes and the second application is for consumers. The customer application, on the other hand, has two functions: visibility of the complete product information and store locator to tell consumers where the products can be found.

In the field application, information is collated and punched in by internal staff in order to supervise their own efficiency. It also has details related to the farmers, season of seeds, economic aspects of crops and many more, and which are updated periodically. While the consumer application helps to check what certifications the product has cleared as well as the information about the farmer's

August 2019 |

35

eKutir

Accelerating Growth in Farming Communities

Krishna Mishra Founder & Chairman

We are the dynamic enterprise changing the perception of farming not as a routine but as knowledge driven system

36

Suvankar Mishra Executive Director

e

Kutir is a social enterprise specializing in technological solutions for the “Base of the Pyramid” market, in its first decade eKutir has successfully extended opportunities for a range of impoverished and marginalized communities, including over 70,000 smallholders. Farmers have gained access to crucial information, products, services and markets, increased yields and income, reduced food waste and seen steadily improving soil and ecosystem health. eKutir is India’s first certified B Corp that provides digital technology solutions anchored through a network of trained microentrepreneurs to accelerate sustainable growth in the farming communities.

In its endeavor to empower the rural communities, farmers, and the small businesses that are related to farming and agriculture, it has launched

BLOOOM. This is an innovative platform offering a plethora of unique services that are of immense use for the farmers and agricultural sector. It can monitor spatial data in real-time, and microclimate data to predict local environmental conditions. This revolutionary application also keeps the records for land holdings and farmer’s end-to-end activities. Blooom is a flagship of eKutir’s foray in to the second generation of building a novel strategy and roadmap for smallholder farmer development. Currently operational in India, Nepal and Haiti, Blooom is looking at expansion in to Peru, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Kenya, Uganda and Philippines in the next 5-years. This application is widely used in India as well as in the neighbouring country of Nepal.

Flag-bearers of the Company Krishna Mishra, a Social Entrepreneur and Innovator with three decades of leadership experience, is the Founder and Chairman of eKutir group of companies. Krishna has been instrumental in driving excellence from his wide range of experience in the domain of agriculture, sanitation and clean and affordable energy for the Bottom of Pyramid population in rural areas. Krishna is an alumnus of Delhi University, India and certified in “Innovative organizational model of farmers, Corporate Leadership and sustainable new generation Co-operatives” from Graduate Institute of Cooperative Leadership (GICA), University of Missouri, Columbia, USA. He has been inducted as “Ashoka Changemakers” Fellow in 2012.

| August 2019

Suvankar Mishra is the CEO and Co-founder of Blooom. He is a serial social entrepreneur and forayed into social entrepreneurship, straight after graduating from BITS Pilani. He is a TEDx speaker. Suvankar lead the enterprise to improve farm productivity and farmers livelihood using ICT (Information and Communication Technology). Suvankar’s core focus is on curating the future of food and farming by harnessing digital technology to connect markets to the billions of consumers. Under his leadership, eKutir has achieved multiple accolades. Suvankar is an alumnus of Stanford, Harvard and University of Pennsylvania, USA. The Essence of the Enterprise The company’s past 10 years is also the story of how the platform that today we call Blooom has been developed through a series of observations, hypotheses, on the ground testing and subsequent learning and refinement. In 2009, we started with the intention to create marketbased interventions that improve the livelihoods of impoverished groups in rural areas, with a solution set targeted specifically at one of the most important segments, smallholder farmers. We identified access, deprivation to knowledge, markets, and services are the core problem, and hypothesized that a market- based, technology-driven solution can address it effectively and efficiently. At the same time, our observations suggested that most attempts at helping smallholders fail because they do not develop a genuine, micro-level understanding of their needs and constraints, and cannot engage them in a manner that establishes trust. With this in mind, we developed a model in which we trained and equipped members of local agricultural communities, usually better educated, progressive farmers, to provide soil testing and smart farming advice to other farmers based on our digital solutions, and to help them procure the

August 2019 |

recommended inputs. Instead of employing them, they were participating in our model as microentrepreneurs (MEs), running their own service businesses enabled by the training and the tools that we provided.

In the initial phase of the project, we utilized project finance to set up these networks with a range of different implementing partners in a different environment: in India (in Odisha and Bihar), and in Bangladesh and Cambodia. At this stage, we sought to test the validity of the following core assumptions: Agricultural knowledge can be digitized and presented in a user-friendly way to benefit farmers, digital solutions can help farmers increase productivity and income, A critical share of farmers recognized the benefit and were willing to pay for it, New enterprises / entrepreneurs made a business and a living out of providing support for farmers using our digital solutions, Mutually beneficial partnerships were being formed.

Through subsequent iterations and learnings from its deployments, eKutir reached an inflection point to envisage that the future of farming needs an integrated solution, a comprehensive approach to an intertwined problem, i.e. - agriculture. Thus, this gave birth to Blooom, in partnership with Fairtrasa, a globally renowned Fair Trade Company based in Switzerland.

Blooom offers an Android mobile application and a web-based interface.

The app offers additional in-person services such as training and field demonstrations. Blooom creates a profile for each farmer, capturing basic data points including land maps, as well as socio-demographic data such as family size. It then tracks the use of inputs and crop protection as well as the amount and the price of the products sold through the platform.

The product consists of two components pre-harvest and post-harvest modules. The fully integrated pre- and post-harvest platform via Blooom, is currently

deployed to 2987 farmers in India and Nepal, involving over 300 micro entrepreneurs (in the new model Blooom Entrepreneurs). The farmers who are registered and transacting on the integrated platform have all been newly acquired, and key measurement metrics are showing systematic growth since the fall of 2018. Of the 70,000 farmers who are using older iterations of our solutions in India, Cambodia and Bangladesh, we are going to gradually bring over the 31,000 who are located in Odisha.

Awards and Accolades eKutir is India’s first Certified B Corporation accredited by the US non-profit B Lab, which measures and holds for-profit companies accountable to the highest level of social and environmental impact. Company has been awarded by Ashoka - Innovators of the Public, RSA Future of Work Awards 2019, MIT Initiative on Digital Economy, Facebook & Internet.org Innovation Winner, 2015 and with many media coverages.

A Responsible Outlook To ensure that smallholders will be able to tread the path, the enterprise’s platform provides resource planning tools and basic education on how to use loans for growth. The intervention that we are pioneering rests on three pillars: (1) Blooom, our fully integrated, soil to shelf tech platform, (2) our last mile enterprise delivery network, and (3) our ecosystem integrator approach. Our model is the result of over decades of years of combined experience in working with smallholders on the ground, analyzing the market barriers, inefficiencies, needs and risks that they struggle with, co-designing solutions with them, and co-creating impact with other stakeholders in the agriculture system.

By addressing what we believe is the key factor that withholds smallholders, access deprivation – access to agricultural knowledge, high quality, sustainable inputs, warehousing,

37

logistics, insurance, credit, and reliable buyers –, we can have an impact on some of the biggest challenges that the world is facing today. We share three top-level, broad impact goals, and the solutions that we have developed to reach society.

1. Increase in inclusion and a reduction in poverty – Agriculture is a complex system, where only a broad coalition of players can achieve sustainable change. Therefore, our approach is to remove barriers, create tools that can strengthen stakeholders, and incentivize them to deliver pro-poor outcomes. We combine our last mile delivery network, relying on farmer organizations and Blooom Entrepreneurs, who are trusted member of their local communities, with our online marketplaces, making it easy for other market players to transact with smallholders. Blooom aggregates smallholders’ demand (for seeds, fertilizers or crop protection) and supply (their produce), enabling input suppliers to predict needs, and buyers to purchase ahead of time. These features create economies of scale and help companies to optimize their supply chains. Increased supply chain efficiency also reduces food waste. We perform a risk assessment, and we collect basic data and then subsequent transactional records for every farm, which enables financial institutions to assess the creditworthiness of farmers.

To ensure that smallholders will be able to thread that path, our platform provides resource planning tools and basic education on how to use loans for growth. We rigorously vet suppliers and allow only high-quality inputs on our online marketplace. This, combined with our smart farming solution set, helps farmers increase yields and mitigate risks on their farms, including improving their climate resilience and soil health. The cumulative effect of all the above, is a significant increase in smallholders’ incomes.

38

Being an entrepreneur is to be at a precipice where your tenacity, courage and diligence will be tested to its fullest. So, be prepared to be fierce in your resolve to win this and you shall be slowly on an upward journey”…

Suvankar Mishra, Executive Director of eKutir and CEO & Co-founder of Blooom

2. Increase in food security – Smallholders’ use of our risk mitigation advice and insurance increases their general business resilience. Their use of credit enables them to purchase high quality, sustainable inputs made accessible by Blooom. These, combined with the sustainable smart farming advice provided by the platform, improve their farms’ yields, reduced food waste and climate resilience. They also increase the nutrient content and decrease the pesticide residue found in their produce.

3. Increase in sustainability – Smallholders’ use of sustainable inputs and best practices improve the climate resilience of their farms, as well as the health of their soils and their local ecosystems. This combined with increased efficiency along the food supply chain results in a significant reduction in CO2 emissions as well as an increase in the abilities of smallholders’ farms to sequester

carbon. Blooom is currently deployed in India and Nepal. Our goal is to reach 1 million smallholder farmers by the end of the first phase of the project in 4 states in India, in Nepal, and in two additional countries.

Far-seeing Plans In developing countries, smallholder farmers feed 60 to 80% of society, yet they are not fully a part of it. They are deprived of information, access, attention and respect. Their lives are steered by forces that they are helpless against – be it the below-market prices that buyers offer them, or the next drought or flood brought about by climate change. Currently, most smallholders are isolated from solutions, at the mercy of an increasingly hostile environment. Ten years from now, Blooom will educate farmers to act together and with a sense of agency, in a market defined by mutually advantageous relationships.

More women and men will use the platform on their smartphones, instead of through Blooom Entrepreneurs.

They will perceive technology as a natural, integral part of agriculture. It will also be natural for villagers to see women interacting with the platform and managing their own farms. And when farmers go to the market, it will be natural for them to feel like they are equal players and will know exactly what price that they can ask for.

Through farming, women and men will be able to gain a sense of dignity. eKutir’s goal is to reach 1 million smallholder farmers by the end of the first phase of the project in 4 states in India, in Nepal, and two additional countries. The company is expanding its data science team and exploring ways to produce data insights that fill important gaps in the market.

Currently, the company is developing three new solutions that address such gaps. The company believes that in the near future, farmers will perceive technology as an integral part in the agriculture and more future generations will opt a career in agriculture.

| August 2019

Modi, the CFO and Devendra Chandani Head Business. The company’s key management team of professionals with credible experience in domestic and multinational companies. They have a cumulative work experience of 140 years.

Devendra Chandani (Head Business), Nishant Mishra (CTO), Milan Sharma (CEO) and Himani Shah (CFO)

Intello Labs Leveraging Technology and Building Solutions for

Here’s the brief profile of the team.

The IIT, Bombay pass-out Milan is having ten years of work experience at SnapDeal, Dunnhumby. Nishant is also from IIT, Bombay and carries a decade of experience working at Amazon, Yahoo and Canon. Himani is the CFO of the company. She is from the IIT, Bombay having decade of experience working at Deutsche Bank and People Strong. Devendra is the Head of Sales and Business of the company. He is from MDI Gurgaon with a decade of experience working at KPMC and SAP. Flagship Products and Services

T

oday, in our country, there is a new wave of budding entrepreneurs and emerging startups that are shaping and leading the way to transform Indian Agriculture. They are deploying technology in the agricultural sector and reforming it for good. Established in the year 2016, Intello Labs is one of those Agri-Tech startups, winner of many prestigious awards, based in Gurugram, Haryana.

Intello Labs uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools including computer vision and deep learning, to build a platform for grading and quality monitoring of agricultural commodities.

It provides an image-based solution, delivered through a smartphone app/application, which ultimately helps in bringing transparency and standardization to quality assessment, reducing value risk and wastage in the agriculture supply chains.

The agriculture sector is strong in India, transactions are often not transparent, and neither is testing for quality. The four co-founders’ idea to bring transparency to the supply chain has worked successfully. The application developed by the company, tests, grades, and analyses the visual quality parameters or agricultural products. This basically deals with the assessment of food and Agri commodities.

They are presently offering services for testing and grading of wheat, tomato, potato, onions, and cardamom.

The services which are provided through the application named as ‘Intello Labs’ can also be customized for each individual client based on the requirement thus deepening the knowledge of that commodity. Following are the key features of the technology/app: Quality testing time reduction from 15 minutes to 2 minutes l Real-time data sharing across multiple locations and screens l high accuracy rate about 95%

l

The Profound Personage IntelloLabs was started in June 2016 by Milan Sharma, the CEO and Nishant Mishra, the CTO Himani Shah

40

| August 2019

MOST

THE

PROMISING 10 Agriculture SOLUTION PROVIDERS

IN 2019

Standardization of quality assessment across platforms and removal of subjectivity

Success Stories

‘‘

The sole Indian Start-Up, Intello Labs was selected as one of the 10 finalists, from the Food & Beverages category at the Plug & Play Event, USA. It is recognized as ‘Leaders in Deep Tech’, and One of the 100 Hot Start-Ups by KPMG and Core. It has also won various numerous awards by CII, FICCI, and NASSCOM. Over the years, the company has worked very hard and achieved lots of awards and accolades. Some prestigious awards are mentioned here:

‘‘

l

We are bringing innovations to the farmers!

stage AI-based startup should be on data gathering and ensuring that they partner with the right set of clients to get the whole gamut of varied data.” -the advisory from the Management Team.

The Upcoming Future

l l l l l l

Won AI for Good Award by NASSCOM in 2019 Won Most Innovative company in agriculture by CII FACE 2019 Won Regional Final for Start-Up World Cup and will represent India at the Start-Up World Cup 2018 Won President’s award at World Food India 2017 Won the Start-Up Runners Up Award at the World Food India 2017 by the President of India.

Won the Innovation Award at the National Agripreneur Summit in 2017.

Focus and Win “For any AI-based algorithm to give accurate results, a significantly large dataset needs to be created. To create this data-set, varied and huge data needs to be collected, processed and defined within the AI ecosystem. The challenge is to get the needed data. The focus for any early-

August 2019 |

Initially started with a few projects in Education and Healthcare; now, the company has decided to focus more on Agri-Technology. Within a short period of one year, IntelloLabs has become the World’s Most Awarded AgriTech firm and promises to continue to remain the same.

In the near future, the company is aiming to become the defacto quality platform across agribusiness value chains for trading, procurement, grading, pricing, marketing, and traceability. The company wants to ensure that the farmers get the right premium for quality and the customers get tasty, healthy, safe and fresh food.

41

matters into his hands, he started making fresh juices at home. His interest in health and fitness and understanding of the space lead him to launch India’s honestly healthy “All Good. No Bad” brand-Raw Pressery Delicacies for the Success Raw Pressury started off by home-delivering 8 types of fresh coldpressed juices and also Anuj Rakyan, Founder & MD the first ever Juice Cleanse in Mumbai with the help of dabbawalas.

The company’s brand has recently introduced dairy-free almond milk.

Where Health Matters!

A substitute for lactose intolerant and vegan audience, along with 4 old-pressed is a technology that uses no heat, different flavors such as oxidation to extract the juices just by pressing cacao, plain (unsweetened), mango and dates. It has also the pulp. Blending is the process of extracting introduced the country’s first-ever bottled sugarcane juices by breaking down all the cells of juices speeding juice, keeping in mind the innovation and customer up the oxidation process. With the aim of delivering convenience without any compromise. fresh and delicious products keeping in check on health, Raw Pressery was formed by Anuj Rakyan. As the With more than 2000 points of sale, the company is Founder and MD of the company, his aims to address catering its products in 16 different cities including the scarcity of honest & transparent products and build a Bangalore, Hyderabad, NCR, Mumbai, Pune, brand that is genuine and authentic.

Ahmedabad, Kochi, Mangalore, and Chennai. Expanding its horizon, the company has also endeavored into the The Inception Tale Middle East especially in UAE and Qatar.

RAW PRESSERY

C

A track of events inspired Anuj for the inception of the company. Growing up as an athlete, Anuj understood the importance of eating healthy and maintaining an active lifestyle. He searched for the juices which don’t include any concentrated or preserved addictive, sugar, and color. But, all he found was pasteurized juices on the shelf, which affected nutritional value of juice. Taking

42

Enacting Social Responsibilities In order to get shelf life, the juice that’s in a tetra pak or a glass bottle is pasteurized and pasteurizing impacts the nutritional value of the juice. The juices are are cold-pressed, never pasteurized and undergo high water pressure processing (HPP) technology for preserving the

| August 2019

MOST

THE

PROMISING 10 Agriculture SOLUTION PROVIDERS

IN 2019

Since inception, it has emphasized on recycling waste plastic bottles. The company has initiated the waste management programme by adopting the latest innovations and creativity and give plastic to fulfill its purpose other than clogging the ecosystem. They initiative is aptly called Raw Cycled as willing consumers return their bottles which are further sent to the recycling partners and converted into athleisure.

Till date, the brand has successfully collected 1.2 million bottles and recycled them. 7 Raw Pressery bottles make 1 Raw Cycled Tshirt. The company is also looking forward to adapt the new technology that can convert plastic bottles into a line of function athleisure products Awards and Accolades Raw Pressery has been much loved and recognized within food & beverage. Emerging as a farsighted startup, the company has acquired many awards such as ‘The Golden Spoon’, ‘50 Emerging Startups to watch in India’ and even ‘The Entrepreneur of the Year’ which was awarded to Anuj Rakyan. The most recent award the company is proud and honored to receive is ‘The Best Vegan Drink award by Peta’ (2018).

Secrets to Success After a good fortune of Raw Pressery, Anuj has shared some secret ingredients behind the company’s success.

He says,“Innovation can become your biggest differentiator and ensure you remain relevant to your target audience. It’s also important to be transparent and really understand the need of the consumer. We started with green juices keeping in mind the consumers need and have come along the innovation path to even launch India’s first bottled sugarcane juice. Always keep it simple, authentic and most importantly keep it Raw”.

entire supply chain. Right from where a particular ingredient was sourced, the soil condition and it’s pH level, at what temperature it was harvested and transported to the pressery. Even the details of the juicing process going right upto the point the bottle goes onto a retail shelf.

‘‘

A comprehensive solution of providing raw, pure and natural juice without any compromise in quality and customer satisfaction

‘‘

juice. Therefore, the company uses plastic bottles for storing the juices instead of glass or tetra paks.

The company is also in collaboration with the farmers to gain and learn valuable insights to make the product better. Raw Pressery started with 8 super healthy cold pressed juices and now have over 26 different juices. The core philosophy of ‘All Good. No Bad’ runs throughout the company and it will keep coming up with products that stand true to this promise. Implementing the key factors to innovate and provide customer convenience without compromise, soon the company will launch new flavors and many such innovative products that will help people lead healthy lifestyles.

Futuristic Strategies with an Essence of Technology Keeping up with the technology advancements, the company is soon going to showcase more transparency and further strengthen the trust within its customers.

Technology will enable the company to publicize the

August 2019 |

43

coupled with a state of the art infrastructure laboratory for conducting product development and analytical studies, Ross has cemented its name in the elite list of industry players.

The Pillars of Success

Dr. Swati Vitonde – Director, Dr. Kedar Deobhankar – CEO, Mr. Nitin Ghatpande – Director, Dr. Deepak Phal – Director – Technical Services

ROSS LIFESCIENCE PRIVATE LIMITED

AN INNOVATOR OF INDIAN AGRO INDUSTRY

A

griculture has been the mainstay of the Indian economy for years and with the advent of technology, the agricultural eco-system has transformed rapidly over the last few years. The recent initiatives taken from the Government alongside increased participation of private players to support and uplift the agricultural sector are revamping this industry to the core!

Ross Lifescience Private Limited is one such matured player who has successfully grabbed the eyeballs of the industry fraternity by its virtue of delivering innovative solutions over the last decade. Ross is a Contract Research Organization that is engaged in product development and analytical services (chemistry, Bioefficacy, and Ecotoxicity) including registration data generation related to Integrated Pest Management (IPM) which involves crop protection, Public health & household insecticides and veterinary ectoparasiticides. Having an expert pool of professionals

46

As the Founding members of Ross Lifescience, the core team of four proficient experts has been instrumental in shaping up the company by aligning to the core values of the business. Today, the company stands on the foundation that is a joint splendid effort by these individuals. Let’s get introduced with these professionals who are the mainstays of Ross Lifescience.

Dr. Kedar Deobhankar - CEO Dr. Swati Vitonde – Director – Finance & HR Mr. Nitin Ghatpande – Director – Business Development Dr. Deepak Phal – Director – Technical Services

The Inception Saga The inception story of Ross Lifescience is nothing short of a journey filled with challenges and the grit to covert those into opportunities. The four founders were working in an MNC and shared a common vision that fuelled them to commence an entrepreneurial voyage. Riding high on conviction, confidence, and passion, the founders left aside the comforts of the corporate life and were on a mission to craft their own destiny. As a tribute to Nobel laureate Sir Ronald Ross, the founders named the entity as Ross Lifescience and by the assistance and guidance of a senior colleague the team formed the company at Pune, India.

By the 2nd year, Ross Lifescience had learned the tricks of the trade and successfully surpassed the challenges by ensuring healthy growth and profit. Concentrating on their area of expertizes - Pest management business and in order

| August 2019

MOST

THE

PROMISING 10 Agriculture SOLUTION PROVIDERS

IN 2019

to build trust amongst its clientele, it got an ISO certification (9001-2008) for its laboratory. Flexibility in doing what they love to do is one key element that plays a pivotal role in driving the business towards the pinnacle of success.

Ross Lifescience is actively involved in imparting technical knowledge to the students of nearby colleges and regularly conduct summer training programs in analytical chemistry

‘‘

‘‘

Embracing Technology for Optimizing Output

Giving Back to the Society

Offering cutting edge technology in the field of analytical chemistry and eco-toxicology

Ross is a GLP certified and ISO 17025 accredited laboratory. Adhering to the industry standards and implementing the best practices, the company has a designated state-of-the-art facility for Entomology with peet grady chambers, room chambers with air exchange facility. It also has in-house developed automatic spraying system to adjust the time of spray delivery with a range of 0.1 sec to 1 min and knockdown monitoring systems. The entity has the required instruments like GC, GC-MS, GC-MS/MS, Headspace GC-MS, HPLC, LC-MS/MS and latest machinery that matches the contemporary technological needs of the projects it’s currently working on. It has a competent Quality Assurance Unit that helps to execute the robust audit programs at regular intervals.

and entomology to college students. It also conducts training and awareness programs regarding the safe use and handling of insecticides and professional courses for ‘Pest Control Operators’. The company actively participates in various CSR programs and conducts activities about the awareness on mosquito-borne diseases and the benefits of a safe and clean environment.

Services that Keeps Them Ahead The Road to Future Evolving as a matured player in the field of data generation and new product development related to Agrochemicals, Vector control and Household insecticides, it offers the below services to its esteemed clients: • Chemistry (Physical and Chemical properties) including 5 batch analysis • Stability studies (accelerated and real-life study in different agroclimatic conditions) • Residue and Persistency studies in soil, water, and plant • Ecotoxicity studies as per OECD guidelines • Entomological studies (Lab and field trials) • Field trials for studying the impact of formulations on aquatic flora and fauna • Product and Packaging Development • Conducting pre-registration and post-registration clinical trials for insecticide products • Field trials for evaluating product performance against target pests for Agrochemicals, Vector control, and Household insecticides.

August 2019 |

Since inception in 2008, Ross Lifescience has managed a progressive growth of around 30% Y-O-Y. With a determined vision to be a leading contract research organization for creating, innovative, customer focussed solution that offers cutting edge technology in the field of Integrated Pest Management, it’s moving at the right direction. Over the coming years, the company aims to acquire new innovative techniques especially related to cell assays that would help accurate and quicker toxicological assessment of product without using experimental animals.

At the moment, it’s focussing to add e-fate studies to complement existing activities and enhancing infrastructure to accommodate state of the art analytical equipment.

47

Indian

Business Leaders

are becoming the Next

Role Models W

entrepreneurs and leaders.

Regardless of background, leadership is the single greatest equalizer that inspires millions around the country.

While traditionally considering role models, we may have looked towards titans of industries, international power icons or leaders within tech companies. Now, we have a plethora of homegrown examples to inspire the next generation of founders,

India is a growing startup hub, up almost 108% in capital investment last year. There are successful ventures across a variety of domains, such as media, technology, AI, agriculture, and hospitality, that shine light on the entrepreneurial nature of Indians. We simply need to ďŹ nd the

hen it comes to digital India, role models from across business domains are inspiring the next generation of change makers and entrepreneurs.

48

| August 2019

Clearly Blue Team: This article was written by the content strategist team at Clearly Blue Digital, a content design studio based in Bangalore, India. Our content strategists, visual designers and video engineers are specialist story tellers for technology & healthcare products, services and brands. Clearly Blue's content marketing and elearning practices deliver custom solutions and services to leading brands including Intuit, IQVIA, Sequretek, Bristlecone, Simplilearn, Manipal ProLearn and others.

right story that resonates with what we want to accomplish.

Through the power of online content, social media and digital interactions, Indian business leaders are sharing their message with hundreds of millions of Indians across platforms.

They’re defining the meaning of leadership, in the current era of digitization and globalization. In fact, research from PwC consulting shows that Indian leaders are more confident about the future than ever before.

Depth of Insights and Learnings Information has become increasingly democratized in the digital era, with more CEOs sharing their life’s work in the open forum. There is greater transparency in the sector, with

August 2019 |

leaders participating in discussions, interviews and offline forums.

They’re also becoming largely recognized globally, as more managerial positions are being filled

by Indian leaders.

The next generation of leaders are developing disruptive innovations across a range of industry segments.

They’re also working through global shifts in technology, trade and talent, while managing local organic growth, according to insights from the Centre of Creative Leadership.

The depth of knowledge base available to any individual is staggering in the current digital age.

There are entrepreneurs from around the country sharing their life stories and highlighting their failures in great detail.

About the Author

BUSINESS BUZZ

Success Stories Across Domains “May 2015 marked two high points of my life -OYO Rooms grew to become the largest budget hotel chain in India, and I graduated from the Thiel fellowship program.

Building and scaling a disruptive start-up, while simultaneously pursuing the fellowship program, were two intertwined journeys that were also life-defining experiences for me.” – Ritesh Agarwal, Founder OYO Rooms.

There are grassroots innovators, unicorn founders and tech entrepreneurs that are revolutionizing the way that India is being seen.

They’re producing realistic and datadriven success stories that can be analysed by anyone seeking inspiration in a domain.

49

Ritesh Agarwal’s journey from selling SIM cards to running a billion-dollar enterprise inspires every tech hopeful in India. Sachin Bansal’s successful exit from Flipkart shows all founders a thriving post-growth strategy.

Naiyya Saggi, CEO & Founder BabyChakra, reaches more than 30 million parents online to help them make the right decision for their children. These stories, and many more, are inspiring the next generation of Indians to take their life’s journey in their own hands.

Kunal Bahl’s Snapdeal turnaround, shows the power of lean thinking and controlling cost. Snapdeal’s revenue grew 87% while losses were cut by almost 70%, owing to the strategic leadership of the founder. Leading examples are present across almost every sector, while CEOs are increasingly sharing their journey.

Same Goal, Different Approaches

Female Entrepreneurs Inspiring Millions Female leaders have been inspiring millions of Indians with their success in the Indian business domain. Richa Kar, founder Zivame, has been one of the shining examples of strong leadership through competitive markets in the tech space.

“Soon after you start, you face a lot of situations where you think ‘I didn’t sign up for this’. But that is the beauty of being an entrepreneur as the journey itself teaches you so much about your own capabilities.” – Richa Kar, Founder Zivame.

Upasana Taku, co-founder Mobikwik, quit her successful corporate career to start one of the fastest growing technology companies in India. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Founder Biocon, initiated her entrepreneurial journey with only INR 10,000 in initial funding.

50

While every Indian leader has a goal of profitability and growth, they take different paths to get there. This makes the space that much more exciting, as leaders take different strategic decisions to reach their mark. The next generation of role models learns from one another to create a profitable strategy that works for their business model.

Startups, such as RedBus, pivoted from a B2B to a B2C model to reach new grounds in the Indian transportation space. Unicorn founder, Byju Raveendran, revolutionized the way education is delivered through interactive video lessons.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder PayTM, introduced the first scale-driven online payment platform in the country.

All these examples are perfect case studies for budding Indians to understand how to become successful using unique strategies. The coming generation can learn from the strategies, vision and success of these founders to create their own unique goals and approaches.

| August 2019