The 10 Most Promising Agriculture Solution providers in 2019 small

2019 / Vol 08 / Issue 3
COMPANY OF THE MONTH
10 MOST
PROMISING
THE
Agriculture
SOLUTION
PROVIDERS
IN 2019
Pradeep Jaipuria
Founder & MD
Dr. Abhay Shendye
Founder & CEO
ENTREPRENEUR OF THE MONTH
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
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RNI NUMBER: MAHENG/2018/75953

Editorial
nnovative technologies have brought revolution to each and every
Ifield 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

CONTENTS
Cover Story
08
PJ Margo
An Eco-Friendly Agri Company
28 30 34
Agrocorp Landbase
Where Real Estate Grows
along with Nature
BOHECO
Elevating Hemp from
Weed to Wonder
FarmLink
An Agri Start-up on a Mission to
Transform India’s F&V Supply Chain

COMPANY OF THE MONTH
Swasti Agro
A Farmer-Centric Social Venture
16
Special
Profile
20
36
ENTREPRENEUR OF THE MONTH
Vedant Speciality Packaging
Developing a Comprehensive
End-to-End Agri Solutions
eKutir
Accelerating Growth in Farming Communities
ARticle
24
Agri Insights
Disruption of Indian Economy by
Agriculture Sector Today
48
CXO
Business Buzz
Indian Business Leaders are
becoming the Next Role Models
40 42 46
Intello Labs
Leveraging Technology and
Building Solutions for
Raw Pressery
Where Health Matters!
Ross Lifescience
Private Limited
An Innovator of
Indian Agro Industry

10
MOST
THE
PROMISING
Agriculture
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
IN 2019
Forging a New Weapon in
Today’s Smart Agriculture
mart Farming is key for the future of agriculture. It is modern agriculture management concept through which
Sthe 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

10
MOST
THE
PROMISING
Agriculture
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
IN 2019
Pradeep Jaipuria
Founder & MD

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

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.
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
®
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.
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.”

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Swasti Agro
A Farmer-Centric Social Venture
The 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.
“Our vision is to
eradicate Food
security crisis
arising around
the globe with
healthy organic
technology”
Dr. Abhay Shendye
Founder, CEO
16 | 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 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.
l
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
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.”
18 | 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”
The 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
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
22 | 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
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”
August 2019 |
23

Disruption
of
Indian
Economy
Agriculture
by
Sector
Today
The 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
Se
ct
or
Today
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
Decades 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.
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
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.
•
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
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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.
• 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.
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.
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
Ayan Nagpal and Arush
Nagpal are the young
entrepreneurs behind
Agrocorp.
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.
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
‘‘
To make
farming
organised, it is
essential to
ensure that the
basics are
organised
‘‘
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.”
Large land bank and
capital for infrastructure
setup
Setting up the
infrastructure
Buyback assurance of
produce
Trained Manpower
Acquiring land is primary and most
vital investment. Without proper
knowledge of law and administration,
the money invested can be on risk.
Farming is all about the right
infrastructure and the right inputs at
the right time and a lot of effort.
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.
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.
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.
August 2019 |
29

‘
BOHECO
Elevating Hemp from Weed to Wonder
One 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
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.
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.
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
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Agriculture
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
IN 2019
greater good. He is the voice of the company at key forums
and weaves professional networks central to its operations.
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.
Seismic Shift Boosted by Technology
Industrial Hemp cultivation is one such global development
‘‘
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
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.
‘‘
MM 2019 |
31

Ravish Chavan, COO
FarmLink
AN AGRI START-UP ON A MISSION TO
TRANSFORM INDIA’S F&V SUPPLY CHAIN
India is one of the world’s largest producers of a variety
of fruits and vegetables, with an ever-increasing
demand for fresh produce. However, the farmers, as
well as consumers, are suffering at multiple levels such as
lack of knowledge of good agricultural practices and use of
substandard inputs leading to lower yield and income for
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
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
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
hours. The company focuses on helping
farmers in building viable businesses and
becoming successful agricultural
entrepreneurs thus creating an impact on the
entire rural eco-system. The agri-startup intends to reduce
agricultural wastage to less than 5 percent in comparison to
the country’s average of 30 percent by streamlining the
value chain. Majority of this saving translates into increased
farmers’ earnings.
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.
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
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
34 | August 2019

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SOLUTION PROVIDERS
IN 2019
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.
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
‘‘
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
Suvankar Mishra
Executive Director
eKutir 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.
36 | 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
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,
August 2019 |
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.
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.
38 | 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
Today, 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 Profound Personage
IntelloLabs was started in June 2016 by Milan Sharma,
the CEO and Nishant Mishra, the CTO Himani Shah
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:
l 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%
40 | August 2019

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Agriculture
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
IN 2019
l
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 Won AI for Good Award by NASSCOM in 2019
l Won Most Innovative company in agriculture by CII
FACE 2019
l Won Regional Final for Start-Up World Cup and will
represent India at the Start-Up World Cup 2018
l Won President’s award at World Food India 2017
l Won the Start-Up Runners Up Award at the World
Food India 2017 by the President of India.
l Won the Innovation Award at the National
Agripreneur Summit in 2017.
Focus and Win
‘‘
We are bringing
innovations to the
farmers!
“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 earlystage
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
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 Agri-
Tech 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.
‘‘
August 2019 |
41

old-pressed is a technology that uses no heat,
Coxidation to extract the juices just by pressing
the pulp. Blending is the process of extracting
juices by breaking down all the cells of juices speeding
up the oxidation process. With the aim of delivering
fresh and delicious products keeping in check on health,
Raw Pressery was formed by Anuj Rakyan. As the
Founder and MD of the company, his aims to address
the scarcity of honest & transparent products and build a
brand that is genuine and authentic.
The Inception Tale
Anuj Rakyan, Founder & MD
RAW PRESSERY
Where Health Matters!
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
the first ever Juice
Cleanse in Mumbai with
the help of dabbawalas.
The company’s brand
has recently introduced
dairy-free almond milk.
A substitute for lactose
intolerant and vegan
audience, along with 4
different flavors such as
cacao, plain (unsweetened), mango and dates. It has also
introduced the country’s first-ever bottled sugarcane
juice, keeping in mind the innovation and customer
convenience without any compromise.
With more than 2000 points of sale, the company is
catering its products in 16 different cities including
Bangalore, Hyderabad, NCR, Mumbai, Pune,
Ahmedabad, Kochi, Mangalore, and Chennai. Expanding
its horizon, the company has also endeavored into the
Middle East especially in UAE and Qatar.
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
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
42 | August 2019

10
MOST
THE
PROMISING
Agriculture
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
IN 2019
juice. Therefore, the company uses plastic bottles for
storing the juices instead of glass or tetra paks.
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
‘‘
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
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
Agriculture 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
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.
nd
By the 2 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
46 | August 2019

10
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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.
Giving Back to the Society
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
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.
Services that Keeps Them Ahead
‘‘
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.
Offering cutting edge
technology in the field
of analytical chemistry
and eco-toxicology
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.
The Road to Future
‘‘
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.
August 2019 |
47

Indian
Business Leaders
are becoming the Next
Role Models
hen it comes to digital
WIndia, role models from
across business domains
are inspiring the next generation of
change makers and entrepreneurs.
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,
entrepreneurs and leaders.
Regardless of background, leadership
is the single greatest equalizer that
inspires millions around the country.
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 find the
48 | August 2019

BUSINESS BUZZ
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 e-
learning practices deliver custom solutions and services to leading
brands including Intuit, IQVIA, Sequretek, Bristlecone, Simplilearn,
Manipal ProLearn and others.
About the Author
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
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.
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.
August 2019 |
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.
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.
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.
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.
Same Goal, Different Approaches
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.
50 | August 2019