Our story begins in 2014 when, in an unprecedented move, a concerned State Government engaged a leading Indian private sector bank to prepare a roadmap for tourism in the most unexpected of places – Sundarban, the largest river delta in the world – to attract global tourists to the UNESCO World Heritage & Ramsar Site while maintaining its fragile ecological and environmenal balance.
Though the unique beauty and challenges of this region have been documented extensively, the books, articles, documentaries that we devoured before our initial visits as curious tourists did not prepare us for the mesmerising panoramas, abundance of flora and fauna and above all, human fortitude in the face of man-animal conflict. We were drawn back, again and again, to one of the most amazing places on earth and it changed us, little by little, till our curiousity turned to passion. To quote Mr. E.B. White (author of Stuart Little), “we have been torn every day between the desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world”.
In summer of 2017 Sandip Kar, Ajanta Dey, Soumyadip Chowdhury and Mallika Singh conceptualized this intention for supporting Startups in the social sector space with suitable interventions through a hybrid structure of a not for profits and a private limited company in a manner that efficiently nurtures profit making under the Triple Bottom Line approach of Natural Produce & Products, Communities & Markets.
July 2018 – December 2019 saw our first intervention in an early-stage urban farming start-up focussed on bringing rooftop farming to urban households in an innovative manner that attempts to improve livelihood options of the rural partner while addressing the needs of the urban consumer.
In June 2019, we committed ourselves to accelerating an organic farm to fork business of Badabon Harvest, a farmer producer company from scratch, using the rising demand for natural, green and organic food as an engine of development to improve the livelihoods of small and marginal farmers in Sundarban Delta, under a conservation approach around Triple P – People, Planet, Profit. The experience was curated and broadcasted by IFOAM (www.ifoam.bio) at the Organic World Congress in Sep 2021 as a case study for using the rising demand for clean, green food as an engine for economic development in underdeveloped geographies.
2020 will be forever known for the destruction it is causing. Notwithstanding the Covid-19 pandemic and Cyclone Amphan which devastated Sundarban, we continue to reconstruct and accelerate, the awesome opportunities for Badabon Harvest, inspired by the resilience of its marginal farmers, against all odds.
2021 In continuance with the Triple Bottom Line approach, Mallika co-launched a startup from Chandigarh Tricity to fill the gap in availability of plant-based, preservative-free ready-to-cook baking and beverage mixes. Under the directives of Reserve Bank of India, Sandip helped navigate the board of a Kolkata based Indian Railway Community Bank - as its CEO - stagnant under regulatory challenges since 2018 through design of a roadmap and also partial execution of the same towards restoration of value and profitability for its large number of micro investors, all Railwaymen.
2022 Working closely with a civil community group to create awareness and help operate a safe animal shelter primarily for stray and abandoned dogs. Currently, the number of such stray and distressed animals under the program is around 300+ including those under a shelter home in Gurgaon and those on the roads under daily supervision in Gurgaon, South Delhi & Dharamshala.
We continue to engage and partner with suitable community led projects in Bharat that can do with some Market Connect with India.