AS YOU SEW...
ARUN NAGPAL 56 CO-FOUNDER, MRIDA, NEW DELHI
Arun Nagpal’s tryst with rural India started as a curious youngster accompanying his father, a Maharashtra government official, into the state’s villages. That is where he went back in 2013, after spending three decades in the corporate world with firms such as Hindustan Unilever and the Minda Group. That year, he founded Mrida, along with Manoj Khanna and Gurveen Kaur Sood, who also had corporate experience. Mrida focuses primarily on three areas: renewable energy in rural areas, creating market linkages for small farmers, artisans and womenfolk, and producing and marketing health and wellness products.
Mrida entered the villages with small solar installations that lit up homes and helped recharge mobile phones. In some cases, the microgrids, as they are called, were supported by corporate houses as part of their CSR (corporate social responsibility) initiatives. The nominal fee charged is pooled into a bank account, maintained by the ‘village development committee’. Meanwhile, women folk are given lessons in tailoring. Those who acquire advanced skills go on to become entrepreneurs, investing in their own sewing machines. Others are employed at a centre that makes women’s accessories. In Bareilly, for instance, a team of women is engaged in making muslin bags, fetching them up to Rs 20,000 a month.
Mrida also helps farmers growing millets and amaranth (a type of grain) find markets for their produce. These grains are made into either flour or cookies and sold under the brand EarthSpired. “Right from farming to processing to packaging, there is value addition at every level,” says Nagpal. EarthSpired is now taught as a case study of ‘Building a Brand for Social Impact’ at business school INSEAD. Another of their enterprises, Mrida Greens & Organics, has a processing unit in Gujarat ,which makes extracts of plants and herbs. Mrida Renergy & Development has partnered with M&M, Reliance Foundation, Rio Tinto and Hero Motors, among others, to channelise their CSR initiatives.
Mrida has a footprint in 42 villages across seven states, has an annual turnover of Rs 5 crore, and has impacted 22,000 villagers so far. This year, the group is targeting a Rs 13 crore turnover, and is in talks with private equity players to raise capital.