Green and Clean
Ankit Mathur 27 Neha Juneja 27 FOUNDERS Greenway Grameen Infra, Mumbai
If Delhi College of Engineering graduates Ankit Mathur and Neha Juneja have their way, rural India would be lighting greener fires in the kitchen. The duo launched the Greenway Smart Stove in 2011, four times more efficient than the ubiquitous mud chulha and emitting 80 per cent less smoke. It followed more than a year of travelling across rural India researching on the cooking techniques. Priced at Rs 1,300, the duo has sold around 5,000 stoves, including 300 It is going to be a long road ahead for them but they will reach a successful and profitable destination.”
Anurag bhatnagar, CEO, Grassroots trading network for Women,a sewa initiative
in Bangladesh. The big leap would happen if the stove, which awaits government approval, gets an official subsidy for a country-wide cooking stove replacement programme. Mathur and Juneja entered the rural infrastructure sector in 2010 with Greenway Grameen Infra. In 2011-2012, they reached a turnover of Rs 40 lakh and are aiming for Rs 5-8 crore this year. “Getting a well-paying job won’t be a problem even today. It is the satisfaction of working for the greater good of the country that keeps us going,” says Mathur.
Black Magic
Convincing villagers to give up their mud chulha was a big hurdle. It was not the pricing, or the less smoke that sold it to the villagers; it was the fact that the stove wouldn’t blacken the walls.
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