Year: 2025

Former strategy consultant Aastha Bajaj left the boardroom to build what most agritech startups only pitch: actual supply chains that work. By Punita Maheshwari Aastha Lalit Bajaj’s career started like many MBA graduates, working at big-name companies. First Hindustan Unilever, then strategy consulting firm The Parthenon Group. But a few years in, she decided corporate […]

A Kolkata-based agritech startup is proving that sustainability isn’t just good ethics, it’s good business. And India’s farmers are reaping the rewards. In the paddy fields of West Bengal, a quiet disruption is underway. Farmers are swapping decades-old chemical regimens for smartphone alerts and bio-based solutions. The result? Yields up 30%, costs down 20%, and […]

One in seven Indians, roughly 197 million people, suffer from some form of mental disorder. Yet between 70% and 92% of them receive no formal treatment.  India has only 0.75 psychiatrists per 100,000 people, when the WHO recommends at least 3. The treatment gap for common mental disorders stands at over 85%. And about 40% of […]

A farmer needs a loan to buy seeds for the upcoming season. Simple enough!! But here’s what actually happens, multiple trips to the bank branch, stacks of paperwork, weeks of waiting, and costs that eat up 5-10% of the loan amount itself.   Let’s remember, for a farmer the cost is only one expense. A day […]

  Every day, communities struggle with roads that crumble after a little rain and construction materials that don’t last. For Ranjan Kumar Gupta and his co-founder Sheikh Ziaur Rahaman, seeing these challenges firsthand was a call to action. They decided to attempt to solve two problem with one solution with their start-up Paving+ in 2021: to turn […]

From college frustration to organizing India’s waste economy: #SankalpChangemakers features Anurag Asati, Co-Founder, The Kabadiwala When Waste Becomes Wealth  During his college days, Anurag Asati faced a seemingly simple problem that would reshape his life’s mission: he struggled to sell household recyclables. What should have been a straightforward transaction—exchanging old newspapers and scrap materials for […]

Making pregnancy and childbirth safer through accessible, affordable & technology-driven solutions – #SankalpChangemakers features Arun Agarwal, Founder and CEO, Janitri Innovations  When Every Beat Matters  Growing up in Kota, Rajasthan, Arun Agarwal witnessed something that would shape his life’s work: the tragic regularity of stillbirths and maternal deaths in his community. These weren’t distant statistics, […]

From IIT Labs to 3.5 Million Farmers – #SankalpChangemakers features Ranjith Mukundan and Ravi Shiroor, Co-Founders of Stellapps The Digital Revolution That Started in a Cow Shed In the sprawling corridors of IIT Madras in 2011, two engineers were wrestling with a problem that seemed worlds away from silicon chips and algorithms. How do you […]

Reimagining Waste, One Bare Necessity at a Time #SankalpChangemakers features Sahar Mansoor, Founder of Bare Necessities   The Memory That Started a Movement  Growing up in Bangalore’s garden city, Sahar Mansoor spent weekends climbing trees in Cubbon Park with her father and sisters. Those early morning walks and nature-filled holidays planted seeds that would later bloom into […]

Robots, sewers, and the fight for human dignity – #SankalpChangemakers features Divanshu Kumar, CEO and Co-Founder of Solinas Integrity  The Engineering of Dignity When Divanshu Kumar first pitched his septic-tank cleaning robot at IIT Madras, he thought he had all the right answers. The presentation wove together sleek slides, technical diagrams, and won praise from university […]