3 India-Based Enterprises Among UN Best Small Business Winners

Three Indian businesses are among the winners of a United Nations-sponsored global competition for the “Best Small Businesses” that provide creative, varied, and impactful solutions for increasing access to healthy and sustainable food.

Fifty small and medium-sized businesses from all around the globe have been named the Best Small Businesses of the UN Food Systems Summit’s “Good Food for All” competition.

Edible Routes Private Limited, Oorja Development Solutions India, and Taru Naturals are the winners from India.

The 50 winners were chosen from almost 2,000 applications from 135 countries, and their solutions to improve access to nutritious, sustainable food are inspiring, diverse, and impactful. The UN stated in a statement on Tuesday that they will also split US$ 100,000 in monetary rewards.

“Small businesses are the unsung heroes of our food systems,” said Dr. Agnes Kalibata, Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the 2021 Food Systems Summit. “They manage at least half of our food economy and keep food on our tables throughout the Covid epidemic.”

“We must recognise the problems they confront and collaborate to ensure that they stay in the forefront of efforts to enhance the future of food.”

According to the company’s profile, Edible Routes, established by Mr. Kapil Mandawewala, provides clients with simple access to naturally and locally farmed, fresh farm products. Its business concept provides city people with agricultural allotments within an hour’s drive, with enough space to feed 220 families.

“Teach people to produce their own food and become stewards of community supported agriculture,” according to the company’s training courses and seminars.

“With growing urbanisation, our idea of maximising the use of urban places to produce fresh farm food has enormous potential,” it stated.

Oorja is a farming-as-a-service (FaaS) firm that works at the “crossroads of sustainable agriculture and renewable energy.” According to the company’s profile on the UN Food Systems Summit community website, it finances, installs, and maintains solar energy systems for agricultural use, as well as selling farmers cheap and dependable irrigation, milling, and cooling services to help them transition from diesel to solar.

Oorja, which was founded and is managed by Mr. Amit Saraogi and Dr. Clementine Chambon, has a staff of 18 employees in India and has so far executed 24 solar projects that have benefited close to 2,000 people and saved 30 tonnes of CO₂.

Ms. Ruchi Jain created TARU Naturals and Organics, a grassroots movement of 10,000 tribal and small-scale farmers across India. It is a fair-trade network that connects farmers to markets with nutritious, clean, and organic products.

“Building self-sufficiency across the value chain ecosystem for farm produce, intervening with climate resilient agriculture, clean post-harvest technologies, value-added goods, and market linkages,” the company stated. We want to ensure that rural livelihoods are secure and that small-scale farmer earnings are doubled.”

Each winner was chosen based on how their company contributes to healthier, more sustainable, and equitable food for the communities it serves, the strength of their future vision, and how well they communicate their company’s present and future impact, according to the UN.

Youth make up half of the winners, while women make up nearly half. There are 42 nations represented among the winners.

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