28 Jan 2020
INDEX
OVER VIEW OF THE TRIP:
REVA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES had organized a SME visit on 28th JAN 2020 to GREEN PATH ORGANIC STATE, located in Malleshwaram. The visit was organized with prior permission and guidance of Honourable Director Prof. Shubha A.
DETAILS OF THE JOURNEY:
On 28th January 2020, 42 students of B.B.A. Entrepreneurship 4th semester along with the coordinator and class teacher Dr. Nitu Ghosh visited the reputed Small and Medium Enterprise in the organic food industry- “Green Path Organic State, Hotel” in Malleswaram, which is a path of a big chain of hotels, farm house and retreats in Karnataka called “ Green Path Eco”. The owner of this restaurant, hotel and farm is Mr. Jayram, who has been a pioneer in organic farming and organic food industry.
The hotel property visit was accompanied with entrepreneurial interaction with Mr. H.R Jayaram, owner of Green Path Eco Group of Hotels & Farms and Mr. Sangram, the entrepreneur of “The Farmer Company” and Credit AI Ink that provides credit cards to farmers to buy agricultural goods from retailers. All the students reported to the venue at 10:30am, where they were welcomed with a unique gesture of welcoming tradition with flowers and lamp. It was followed by walking through the hotel property to get a clear picture of what the hotel is about, how it has been constructed, designing and other elements that have been its significant sustainable aspects, its organic factory outlet, its operations etc.
The hotel was well managed and had wonderful state- of -art interior design, decoration and amenities, which was completely made of natural products like- wood, clay, bamboos and absolutely free of plastics. It had a clean and green atmosphere filled with peace and eco-friendly items which made us feel the nature. There was literally no plastic anywhere around. After going through the hotel, all students were seated in the conference hall for a “meet and greet interaction” with the entrepreneur who has started this unique idea of organic hotel.
The Green Path is a set of diverse Eco-initiatives in the abundant state of Karnataka. They have two award-winning Eco-stays: Eco-Hotel in Bengaluru, and Eco-Retreat in Coorg. Organic State, situated diagonally opposite Mantri Square in Malleshwaram, is India's largest organic destination for shopping, eating and Eco-friendly get-togethers. Green Path is a web of several eco-initiatives including organic farms, stores, eateries, eco-stays and workshops in Bangalore, Nelamangala and Coorg.
The main mission of the organisation is to create easily replicable models of sustainable living through organic farming and good food movement in order to inspire more people to adopt an Eco-conscious lifestyle. They have developed the noble vision of celebrating the fullness of life by honoring and preserving the natural ecology of Mother Earth as well as mankind - as part of one universe. The restaurant- “Forgotten Food” at the Organic State, they have begun “Good Food movement” through their restaurant. At Forgotten Food, they have brought to the table traditional cuisines and secret recipes that may have been forgotten, all completely organic and vegetarian. Customers will meet the millet, and a variety of small whole grains, rich in fibre and with high nutritive value. Their buffet celebrates all kinds of millets, including M-Crust pizza - pizza made with millet flour. The Terrace Garden has whole range of organic plants, vegetables and leafy vegetables that are completely organically grown. Terrace Garden uses Vermicompost, using earthworms, generated by recycling organic waste and used in our terrace gardens to grow organic produce.
Mr. H.R Jayaram, founder of “The green path concept” in Banglore- India, spoke to students about his holistic eco-concept, his vision and efforts to promote organic agriculture and trade in order to help the world and nation accomplish the sustainable development goals. He spoke about his life and entrepreneurial journey, how he left his highly paid profession of a lawyer to do something useful for the society and for the people. He was born in a family of agriculturists and brought up in a forest near the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border. Having started farming at the age of seven to help his father, he grew up with nature. And that experience stayed with him, no matter where he went. He carried it along even after he came to Bengaluru for studies and became a lawyer. The Green Path Eco Farm was started in the year 2007. The 58-year-old farmer, lawyer and social entrepreneur defines Green Path as a movement that brings together several eco-friendly initiatives like organic farms, stores, eco-stays and hotels, terrace gardens, and more to promote the advantages of organic living.
He has created models for a sustainable lifestyle: an organic farm, an eco-resort near Bangalore, an organic shop and mobile store as well as an eco-hotel in the city. He also talked about the uses of manure for nature, use natural water and sunlight, follow diversity, go chemical free and how it is a way of life.
He spoke about his entrepreneurial journey, which motivated all the students and his vision of promoting organic and sustainable way of life to today`s generation and to connect with nature and make a religion of eco-living.
Next, there was a talk and interaction with Mr. Sangram an entrepreneur who left fourteen jobs to switch to social entrepreneurship towards which he found his keen interest and passion in serving the farmers for better life. He came up with an unique idea in 2017 of providing smart cards to farmers who can use these cards for purchasing products, services or anything related to farming.
He started a venture called as - Credit AI Ink, which is a Singapore based company, incubated in Singapore, with 15000$ investment providing non-banking financial credit smart cards to around 30000 farmers in India. He strongly believes in entrepreneurship “as his madness” and started his venture when he was 36 years old. At the beginning he had been visiting the agriculture fields telling small marginal farmers about this smart card idea, now he works with states like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra etc. And has also connected with Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, and Bangladesh.
It was a very interesting, inspiring and interactive session for all the students and they learnt a lot about how an entrepreneur’s life is and how they run their business, build their vision, dedication, commitment and lead their entrepreneurial journey towards contribution towards the society and nature. Students and faculty were also provided with lip smacking organic lunch and a basil welcome tea, which was liked by all the students. Students enjoyed to the fullest and it was a real practical experience which invoked motivation among the students to become entrepreneurs and facilitated them to gather innovative social ideas, involving less investments and helping to achieve sustainable development of the society and world.
Compiled by:
Ms. Blessy Gubbala, B.B.A. Entrepreneurship-IV sem
Editted by Dr. Nitu Ghosh, Programme Coordinator, B.B.A. Entrepreneurship.
