Guwahati: Renu Mahanta from Nagaon, who was initially unable to make a mark with a traditional snack enterprise, swiftly pivoted to starting a small tea stall along the highway in 2019, selling tea and homemade ethnic snacks. In 2020, while the world grappled with COVID-19, Renu saw yet another opportunity and started supplying meals to nearby quarantine centres.

Today, 'Kuhi Tea Bar' run by Renu has blossomed into a major refreshment hub in the locality, serving wholesome meals along with pickles and packaged ethnic food products prepared in its own processing unit. Currently, the entrepreneur is gearing up to launch a lodging wing, “Kuhi Home Stay”. The sales of her processed food items have witnessed a visible spur, receiving wholesale orders from across 7 districts of Assam and cities like Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Delhi.

                                                                                             Renu Mahanta

"We have created 40 jobs and our revenue growth is 12 per cent", Renu shared with Business North East. Her business is now listed on Google. 

A mourning Kanika Talukdar from Nalbari was left to fend for her family after her husband's untimely demise. Without a formal education degree, Kanika decided to walk the entrepreneurial path, establishing 'Jayatu Organic Products' in 2014 after assessing the viability of a business in organic fertilizers and pesticides.

                                                                                               Kanika Talukdar

Originating as a small-scale initiative at her home with a humble investment of Rs 500, the venture has since evolved into a thriving industry, earning Kanika recognition in the form of the prestigious national-level Padma award in 2021. Kanika's 'Jay Vermicomposts' is distributed to wholesalers and retailers as well as listed on e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart.

Today, “Jayatu Organic Products” has carved a name for quality organic fertilizers sold under its brand name, 'Jay Vermi Compost', for which Kanika is soon going to apply for a trademark. Through this process, Kanika created 12 jobs and managed to develop a sustainable revenue model. She has also started selling through big e-commerce platforms such as Flipkart and Amazon.

Renu's "Kuhi Food Processing" and Kanika's "Jayatu Organic Products" are among the 150 women-owned/led enterprises from Assam incubated under the "NRETP Incubator Program". A one-of-its incubation program for SHG-based enterprises, it's an initiative by the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM). IIM Calcutta Innovation Park has been on-boarded as the implementation partner to drive pilot projects of the program in Assam, Bihar and West Bengal, in association with the respective State Rural Livelihoods Missions. 

This project mainly aims to empower women with infallible business knowhow so that they are able to structure their businesses better and in alignment with the market demands. This is achieved through a well-laid incubation program comprising business training, tailormade mentoring, domain training and various interventions to facilitate product standardization and market linkages. Along with training, the program also accomodates a funding aspect, providing the selected enterprises with grants and soft loans.

"Women selected for the program are members of self-help groups under the NRLM umbrella with a minimum annual turnover of Rs. 8 lakhs," Subir Singha, the project lead in Assam from IIM Calcutta Innovation Park, told Business North East. "The enterprises are selected from non-farming and non-trading sectors and they should be either woman-owned or woman-led."

"We have completed 8 business trainings of 3-day durations each and three domain-specific training for the 150 selected enterprises in Assam. To date, the domain training sessions have covered areas like branding and packaging, restaurant and catering services and advanced training on handloom", he said, adding that further domain training on digital marketing, handicraft, dairy processing, bakery and jewellery designing are in the pipeline."

"Implementation of this program demanded a conspicuously different approach from the ones adopted for startups. Given the nature of businesses and the background of the entrepreneurs, we had to simplify the entire training methodology and make it more engaging and less overwhelming for the entrepreneurs," he added.

Singha further informed about the progressive outcome of the program, instrumenting more than 25% revenue growth for 60 enterprises due to factors like production growth, national market linkages, digital presence and remarkable rise in sales.

Singha conveyed his gratefulness to the Assam State Rural Livelihoods Mission for facilitating the smooth implementation of the program in Assam. "Our efforts for the effective implemention of this program could not have been possible without the constant support from the Assam State Rural Livelihoods Mission. The State Project Manager, Indrajit Das and his entire team at ASRLM made it easy for us to reach out to the entrepreneurs and helped in effectively dismantling the implementation challenges at the grassroots level," Singha said.

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