Budget Reaction: Mr. Arun Nagpal, Co-Founder, Mrida Group, a Social Business Venture

The budget has a very obvious rural development focus. The FM has shared his vision of providing socio economic security for the rural, farming community, poor and vulnerable. We believe that the focus on rural electrification, skill development schemes, farming focused interventions, farm to market connectivity, agriculture and farmer welfare schemes targeted at income generation and security will impact favourably on the rural community. The Government should be congratulated for taking these very aggressive and commendable steps and now the on-ground implementation and monitoring to ensure that targets are met will be the key

About Mrida
A Social Business Venture incorporated in February 2014, ‘Mrida’ (Sanskrit for ‘Soil’) seeks to build sustainable and scalable, financially viable business models aimed at holistic rural development.

Since its inception, Mrida has initiated innovative projects centred around solar micro grids and agricultural initiatives to provide energy access and facilitate education, women’s empowerment and livelihood opportunities to remote rural areas in the Indian States of Rajasthan (Abu Road), Uttar Pradesh (Bareilly), Uttarakhand (Haridwar, Almora and Uttarkashi), and Jammu & Kashmir (Leh/Ladakh). The initial response and results have been encouraging and have demonstrated visible impact. The focus over the next 2-3 years would be to set up more such working models and proofs of concept in multiple villages/hamlets in different parts of the country - showcasing the potential of nominal interventions leading to sustainable and significant social impact as well as economic growth.

Mrida has partnered with leading business houses in India like Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd. (IL&FS), Rockman Industries Ltd. (Hero Motors Group), and Mahindra & Mahindra for integrated Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives, and is currently also engaged in active discussions with others in this regard.

Mrida operates at the ground level, close to the soil. Its work is focused at the Base of the Pyramid (BOP) – Mrida’s core customers. The product offerings emanate, literally as well as figuratively, from the soil.

The group comprises business entities working on financially viable business models designed to create win-win situations across the spectrum of their association. These include:

• Mrida Renergy & Development (P) Ltd. – Seeks to provide energy access to remote rural villages not connected to the electricity grid, and use this as a tool for sustainable rural development
• Mrida Greens & Organics Pvt. Ltd. – supports cultivation and collection of high value crops, plants and herbs, and promotes healthy products and traditional Indian medicine to the consumer, while ensuring remunerative prices and sustainable livelihoods for small and marginal rural communities
• Khoj – Journeys of Discovery - Mrida’s “impact tourism” venture showcases the tangible benefits and impact of small interventions at the Base of the Pyramid, while providing a unique opportunity to understand the ground realities of rural India in a relaxed, get-away environment

Mrida represents financially viable business models that are sustainable and scalable – businesses that not only generate wealth, but disseminate it across the spectrum – ‘Virtuous Circles’ that feed upon themselves, gaining momentum and becoming bigger and stronger as they go along.

Mrida comprises a bunch of passionate individuals coming together to build a cohesive, empowered and self-motivated team. With wide-ranging, cross-functional experience in the corporate and non-government arenas, the team packs quite a punch when it comes to delivering results on the ground. For more information, please visit: http://www.mridagroup.com/

181, Anand Vihar, Pitampura, New Delhi -34

This release was published on openPR.