In 2013, Ashwin Subramanian’s wife Preethy Iyer gifted him a blog for his birthday. The idea was for him to document how they practised sustainability, a subject Ashwin feels very strongly about, in their daily lives. The blog, Ashwidea, was a portmanteau of his name Ashwin+Idea.

Today, nearly a decade later, Bengaluru-based Ashwidea has evolved into a much larger company that is consulting across a broad spectrum including offering corporates advice on how to run their CSR programmes, fund-raising for nonprofits, and working on the ground with them across the country, in areas such as education, health, water, environmental livelihoods.

Ashwin Subramanian, Founder and CEO, Ashwidea

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Ashwidea Founder and CEO Ashwin, who holds a degree in chemical engineering from Punjab University, and an MBA from Symbiosis, was working for a large corporate space when he decided to move to Bengaluru to follow his passion for sustainability and the environment.

After several freelance projects, he was approached by several nonprofits, who wanted help with reaching out to sources of funding. A three-year project with an NGO called Wildlife Trust of India on mangrove conservation in Kerala laid the foundation for his company.

Speaking to Social Story, Ashwin said, “We started as a blog on sustainability at home, essentially whatever we were doing at home from a sustainability point of view. When I decided to start something of my own, I thought okay let me keep the same domain name because it kind of falls into a similar domain of work.”

He says with his background in the consulting space, especially in sustainability and renewable environment, he realised after speaking to several nonprofits that they did not have the skills for that. “This was in early 2017. Of course, things are a lot better now and things have become more professional. but back then I realised that was a big gap,” he says.

CSR as a Service

Ashwidea started working with a couple of nonprofits, and gradually built a larger pool. “One aspect of our work is fundraising, the other is engaging with volunteers on different kinds of projects as they are called in CSR parlance. This includes the activities they are running, how to  manage them better, or providing services like assessments for those kinds of projects. We also work with corporates who are trying to figure out what they want to do from their CSR perspective and what they can do with their CSR social impact programmes and how they want to define them.”

Ashwidea’s two key areas of focus are CSR as a Service and CSR Finder.

“In the early days, when we would get requests, finding a match was a complex process. Today, through CSR Finder, we match corporates with about 20 non-profits we work with across the country on a regular basis, when they have any requirements,” he says.

Ashwin says that this streamlines the process for donors, especially corporates, where CSR is still in its fledgling stage and is handled by people who have other responsibilities as well. “They often have a  very short span of time to get all the information and put it across to their Board to approve as a CSR activity. We have created  a format where people can get whatever relevant information they need, without having to go through a 20-page proposal.”

He gives the example of a project Ashwidea completed with a Bengaluru-based IT company Microland Limited. “In mid- 2019, we worked with Microland, who wanted to engage with a certain number of schools that needed support on a regular basis. We shortlisted four schools where there was a requirement for washrooms for both boys and girls. The project not only involved renovating and reconstructing new washrooms in these locations, we also ensured that there were enough cleaning supplies and that the washrooms were cleaned regularly,” he says.

Ashwidea helped IT firm Microland identify four schools where there was a requirement for washrooms for both boys and girls.

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Sensitisation about sustainability

Ashwidea also engages with companies to sensitise them about the larger picture of sustainability. “We have been helping companies become more sustainable by reducing their carbon footprint or managing waste better. We have also been looking at how they can engage their employees,” he says.

Ashwin feels that at many companies, sustainability is a very top-driven exercise. “Companies may talk about being carbon-neutral but one can see paper cups strewn everywhere. “The average employee might say, ‘Why do I care, or What does it mean to me?’ Employee behaviour is a very tough thing to change overnight, or it takes a lot of commitment from an organisation to change.”

As a well-known name on the city’s quizzing circuit, Ashwin says they have built engagement programmes for employees on sustainability, using quizzes as people seemed to enjoy them. “I blend the quizzes to make the programmes fun, and that gets people to listen.”

Ashwin says in the future, more impact can be achieved if companies and people collaborate. “Right now, we don’t see too much cross-company collaboration. I feel that it kind of boils down to who will get what credit. That becomes a challenge. I hope that we shed that insecurity and we are open to collaborate.”

I am Madhu, a 15-year-old girl from Mahesana district in Gujarat. I belong to the ‘Vadi’ community, which is a nomadic tribe in the state of Gujarat. My father, Chhuranath Madari, passed away 12 years ago and my mother, Leelaben Madari, is a homemaker. My grandfather owns livestock and my elder sister discontinued her schooling to help grandfather sell livestock.

Unlike many girls in my community who are not able to get higher education, I wanted to study because

I want to support my mother and grandparents as well.

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I believe that an educated girl makes two families educated. However, for many students like me, the biggest challenge during the lockdown was access to technology and the internet. I couldn’t attend online classes as I lack a smartphone. To find a way to study, I used to walk 4 kilometres with my friend Shraddha, who had offered to join me.

After missing out on months of education because the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic led to the closure of my school, learning losses for students like me who were already left behind by education systems were further compounded by inequities that arose from school shutdowns.

I was good at maths and had been a part of the IBM STEM for Girls project – a digital fluency and life skills curriculum designed to help girls in government secondary schools break gender stereotypes and explore the possibilities of STEM-enabled careers.

However, I couldn’t regularly attend its online classes during the pandemic. After the project interventions, I was provided with a smartphone under a mobile library approach which made sure that I could attend the sessions with our facilitator – who shared easy to understand maths learning videos while using the mobile to teach math concepts.

With the help of my facilitator, I was able to participate in all of the online sessions. Thanks to the mobile library, I don’t have to walk 4 kilometres and now I can focus on my studies.

Giving ice popsicles a healthy swing, this Hyderabad-based brand is satisfying sweet tooth cravings

By Bhavya Kaushal

November 29, 2021

Other than ice-creams, Indians are known to relish ice popsicles. But India doesn’t have many formal brands selling this widely-consumed product. Founded last year by entrepreneur-duo Ravi and Anuja Kabra, Skippi is bridging that gap.

Indians are known for having a sweet tooth. From ras malai to jalebi, cakes to doughnuts, we relish it all. Apart from milk-based ice-creams, one of the desserts that we have grown up devouring at fairs and outside our schools is ice popsicles. 

While ice pops are one of the most popular desserts in the Indian subcontinent, with the ice cream market in the country reaching over Rs 14,000 crore in 2020, the industry is largely unorganised and hardly has any formal players, says Ravi Kabra, Founder of ice pops brand Skippi Ice Pops. 

Skippi (also known as Kabra Global) is an offshoot of Prabhat Udyog, a larger FMCG company started by Ravi’s father, Pravin Kabra in 1980.

Ravi realised the existence of this formal gap when he was living in Australia (between 2018-19) and his sister came to visit him. “We enjoyed ice pops a lot in Sydney. So when my sister came from India to visit, she wanted to pack some and take it back with her,” he narrates, adding, “This became a turning point for us.”

Ravi and his wife, Anuja Kabra, started researching the market. After speaking to friends in different cities, the duo realised that the gap really existed.

“Initially, I was surprised because India is much hotter and more humid than Australia, and yet, does not have any formal players.”

In 2019, Ravi and Anuja, (while still in Australia), started their research and set up a unit in Hyderabad. They returned to India and were ready to launch the product in March 2020, when the nationwide lockdown was announced in the middle of the month, bringing everything to a grinding halt.

“It was a big loss for us as rentals, salaries and other expenses had to be taken care of,” Ravi recalls. The business couldn’t operate for a year – from March 2020 to March 2021. However, when the restrictions were lifted, Skippi made an entry into the market to a warm response.

“Our sales were booming because we realised that in the summer months, people who were mostly sitting at home wanted to consume ice pops,” he adds. Since its inception, Skippi has clocked revenues worth Rs 60 lakh.

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Decoding the product and the market

Ravi says that there aren’t many brands in India that sell ice pops, with some of the sellers being Snackstar and Washington-based Zipzicle. However, Skippi differentiates itself as a “healthy, formal and organised” brand.

Currently, the brand offers ice pops in six flavours – Cola, Lemon, Raspberry, Orange, Mango Twist, and Bubble Gum. 

A box of 12 ice pops costs Rs 240 and a bag of 36 costs Rs 666. These ice pops cost Rs 10 when purchased from a local vendor. However, Ravi is confident of the pricing and believes that they will survive competition from the unorganised market.

He explains, “Today’s consumers have become very health-conscious. They want to read the label and know everything.”

He also emphasises that the flavours are extracted from natural fruits and vegetables. For instance, in the Mango Twist ice pop, the colour is extracted from curcumin. Ravi clarifies that these extractions take place in different units that have tie-ups with Skippi. “We have visited these units and done quality checks to ensure that the quality is not compromised.”

He says that they are focused on producing natural products because the masses (especially, the parents) “trust us.”

“When my wife and I started out, our thought process was very clear. We will not sell anything that we cannot give our kids to consume,” Ravi notes.

Skippi sells through its own website as well as marketplaces such as Amazon and Flipkart, and also through 2,000 retail outlets across the country. Hyderabad is Skippi’s largest market followed by geographies such as Mumbai, Kerala, Mizoram, and more.

Going forward, Ravi is keen on exploring the international market. “The US, UK and Australia are massive industries that we want to get into.” However, it plans to start with the Middle East and African markets in the next 12-18 months and move to the European markets thereafter.

The brand also plans to introduce new flavours in the coming times and is not looking at any other category.

“At the moment, the market has enough demand for ice popsicles that we need to meet,” he notes.

These entrepreneurs prove that struggle is a part of success: top SMB stories of the week

By Palak Agarwal

November 28, 2021

This week, SMBStory brings to you the story of founders who, through resilience, have overcome adversities and build promising businesses.

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It is said that strong people don’t fear struggle as struggle is a part of success. This week, SMBStory came across entrepreneurs who have not only overcome their adversities but have built promising businesses amid the challenges they had to face in their journey.

Here are the top SMB stories of the week.

Tulja Tooling

Last week, while the business community and media were celebrating, and rightly so, the rise of women entrepreneurship in India on the occasion of Women Entrepreneurship Day, a 34-year-old frail woman stood resolutely under her dripping umbrella awaiting a bus.

A business owner herself, she was on her way to meet a potential customer. Tulja Sukhdayalsing Sharma aka Rani Tulja has a small workshop in Aurangabad under the name of Tulja Tooling in the machine tools business. For nearly two years now, she has been out on the road, come rain or shine, meeting industrialists and manufacturers to sell her products.

Being one of the few women who chose to set up her own tooling workshop rather than work in another establishment, soft-spoken Rani Tulja stands out in this macho landscape of machines and tools.

After completing her diploma in Draftman Mechanical from the town, Rani not only battled the prejudice that her gender attracts, but had to undergo severe personal challenges to the point where she even contemplated ending her life.

Yet, today, she stands tall.

She has not only found a firm footing in her area of expertise but has expanded the market of her products to neighbouring Kolhapur, Nagpur, and other states like Gujarat and Punjab. Today, she has five machines, including a milling machine, lathe machine, and drill machine, and employs two workers. She does the design, technical work, and marketing herself, and made a modest sum of Rs 24 lakh last year.

Read the full story here

KDM India

Nilesh Mali started his first job at the age of 18 when he moved to Mumbai from Jalore, a district in Rajasthan famous for the Marwari horse breed. With dreams of achieving something big in his life, Nilesh took up odd jobs in retail shops in the early 2000s. He then moved to other electronic goods such as selling walkmans and radio.

Almost two decades later, Nilesh is running a company with an annual turnover of Rs 30 crore. According to the founder, KDM, founded in 2011, gives a lifestyle choice to people living in Tier II and III cities.