Kshetrimayum Vedmani Devi
M/s VEDAM AGRO ENTERPRISES is an entrepreneurial venture of Kshetrimayum Vedmani Devi, who is a food & nutrition specialist. Vedam Agro Enterprise is currently an ISO 22000:2018 Certified Firm, with FSSAI no.21617001001616. They are producing more than >50 products turmeric (powder/dry slice/fresh), ginger (powder/dry slice/fresh), cyanne pepper (powder/whole), King chilly (fresh/powder/oven dry/smoke dry/pickle), pineapple queen/kew Fresh, cinnamon (stick/powder), black aromatic rice (Chakhou), bamboo Shoot (pickle), hogplum (pickle),Starfruit (pickle), olive (pickle), mixed fruit (pickle), oyster mushroom (pickle/dry powder), lemon, mango, litchi, passion fruit, gooseberry, garcinia (juice/candy/pickle), avocado (fresh), etc.
Veda Agro Enterprises is also working with the local community, in particular women farmers and workers, for promoting entrepreneurship skills in food processing with focus on enabling sustainable livelihoods. These products are being currently marketed by Imphal based marketing agents Local Common Distributor, NE-Dukan, ‘Red Shopper’ in towns across the State and India Mart platform. Within the span of the 6 years, the Enterprises had grown to a state level organization with networking of other similar entrepreneurs in various pockets of Manipur, and with outreaches in Guwahati, Kolkata, New Delhi, Ahmedabad and Mumbai among some of the important cities in India.All the products are locally sourced and made. Dr. Vedmani herself conducts training on food processing, and practical knowledge on preparations of fruits and vegetable pickles, jam, candy, etc.
Vedmani is from Cohort 2.0 of Project Her&Now.
Product Catalogue – Vedam Agro Enterprises
For more details:
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/VEDAM-AGRO-Enterprises-VEDA-Products-861238190714158/
Trishnashree Dutta
Trishnashree is the co-founder and director of Tholua Pratisthan Private Limited. Her brother, mother and sister are the other co-founders. They redesign indigenous super foods for improved gut health and well-being. Currently, they have 3 products – Stevia leaves, (which is a plant based zero calorie sweetener), Black Garlic and Kombuchah (a Tea Vinaigrette).
According to her, the progressive consumers are becoming health conscious and looking for convenient and tasty wholegrain and Naturally Processed Foods And Beverages. But 90% of the market is filled with industrially processed and packed with preservatives. The idea behind Tholua is to cater to this market segment. They are currently selling to departmental stores in Guwahati, and have an online presence as well. They are already working with 500+ farmers in Dhemaji and Dibrugarh districts of Assam. Tholua is the 2nd venture of Trishnashree. Before this, she was running an architectural consultancy service business and awarded for Most Innovative Design Solutions in the year 2019.
Trishnashree is from Cohort 2.0 of Project Her&Now.
For more details:
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/Tholua
Thotyola Zimik
Thotyola Handloom was started in 2014 by Yaomila Zimik. Yaomila is driven and has a strong zeal to provide employment to small time weavers and keep the traditional skills alive. They have various units with staff engaged as Trainer, at the Production unit, Tailoring unit, Embroidery and weaving unit and directly working with weavers and tailors dealing with mostly traditional clothes. They have around 30 permanent staff (weavers and tailors) and 5 part time staff. The reason this unit is started is to back their strong sense of protecting their traditional skill of weaving and preserving the age-old cultural products and patterns with designs specific to each Tribe in Manipur and the whole North East.
Their products are -Wraparound plain, Talui centenary shawl, Traditional Ladies bag , Chonkhom Shawl, Traditional Wraparound, Seichang Shawl, Scarf, Naga Kashan, Rose Kashan, Normal design wrap around, neck tie.
Thotyola is from Cohort 2.0 of Project Her&Now.
Thokchom Reena Luwang
Reena has shared her love for designing and making clothes. She operated from home and after marriage with her husband’s support, she started engaging with other women weavers where she supplied the loom and gave them designs to make. Currently engaged with more than 150 women weavers through her enterprise, J.S Enterprise. The varieties of products they have is around 15, they deal with cotton and silk products
She gave them training and believes in women empowerment and self- reliance with financial independence They don’t have a physical outlet yet. They received a National Entrepreneurship award 2019.She aims to expand their market to states outside Manipur.
Reena is from Cohort 2.0 of Project Her&Now.
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Shijagurumayum Somola Devi
Somola is the proprietor of Somola Embroidery which she started initially 15 years back from her home with just 2 women weavers working together with her. She eventually grew her base and scale of operations. She deals with wrap-around and embroidered products, mosquito nets, school uniform, logo embroidery for schools, colleges and Police department.
Currently working with 14 women workers who are engaged in weaving, tailoring and embroidery. She has a supportive husband who motivates her daily.
Somola is from Cohort 2.0 of Project Her&Now.
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Naobee Phurailatpam
Naobee runs a Surgichem Agencies- a need based wholesale/retailer which manufactures lab based products. They supply products like Deep Freezers, Biosafety Cabinets, Autoclaves, Incubators, Ovens etc., according to the demands of the customers and have been doing quite well by providing top notch quality while fulfilling it under the time bounds. Researchers, hospitals and colleges are the main customers.
Started to bridge the gap, they registered as sole proprietorship in 1998. She took over this business after her husband passed away. She wants to stay connected and more engaged in the business than just doing it for business purposes only.
Naobee is from Cohort 2.0 of Project Her&Now.
Nandini Sarawgi
Nandini has an Ecommerce Export Business which is involved in the trading of Fabrics, laces, pillow covers, table linen, blocks, zippers, threads, towels, etc. She started her business 12 years back, and has been mostly selling in the US and UK through Etsy and Amazon. The firm is registered as a Partnership firm, with her two sisters and mother as partners. They have regional centres in Bangalore, Delhi and Mathura as well.
Nandini is from Cohort 2.0 of Project Her&Now.
Momita Nongmaithem
Momita runs a meat processing business based out of Imphal, Manipur, called Goo Goo Food. She has a background in commerce and has been working as an accountant. Although this business was not her primary and immediate work, she joined the business which her mother had been doing for ages. She reinvented joined this venture to end the door-to-door selling of the products by her mother so that they have more time together.
Eventually she registered it as Goo Goo Foods in 2016. The pickle business started with just beef and with positive feedback and demand from customers they included chicken and pork pickle. With sceptical response to beef products in a community which does not approve it, it became a challenge but they continued. They maintained the quality of their products.
Momita is from Cohort 2.0 of Project Her&Now.
Meghna Bortamuly
Meghna is the co-founder of Eastern Exim Co. Currently, they are operating under the brand name Dynasty Tea, a CTC tea brand which is currently operating in Northeast India. Meghna is MSc in International Business at University of Leeds. The business was initially started by her mother in 2017, and she has been fully managing it since 2018. She has taken selection training at Lattakoojan Tea Estate, Numaligarh. She has also visited several tea gardens in Upper Assam to gain in-depth knowledge about how the tea industry operates where she learnt the proper way of plucking tea leaves in the gardens, how the tea leaves are brought to the factory, on what basis the tea quality is determined, and how it turns from tea leaves to the end product i.e. different grades of tea. After coming back from training, she worked on ground level in various market areas in and around Guwahati to promote our Tea Brand ‘Dynasty Tea’. While working in the market she also experimented different marketing tactics to promote our brand.
They are now focused on distribution of their brand across regions. Their distribution channel currently operates in few states of North-East India, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh. Her next biggest endeavour is to start mobile tea shops, which is like a high-end tea cafe where people would like to spend time.
Meghna is from Cohort 2.0 of Project Her&Now.
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Mayfereen Ryntathiang
Mayfreen Ryntathiang, president of Grassroot, which is committed to working with communities from an Indigenous Rights and Gender perspective. It was formed on July 27, 2007 with the purpose of addressing injustices that impedes human rights and to protect, defend and promote indigenous peoples’ rights. Grassroot works to empower indigenous people through capacity building, skills development activities, sustainable livelihood programmes, women & youth empowerment and advocacy.
She now plans on starting an e-comm platform called Matti. There was no profit from the social enterprise, and this is why she set up Matti for selling the indigenous products made by communities of Meghalaya. She has already registered Matti and is now working on streamlining the supply chain, pricing, storage, accessibility (the artisans are in remote locations) etc. She wants to promote the indigenous community, and for the past decade worked tirelessly on this vision.
Mayfereenis from Cohort 2.0 of Project Her&Now.
