This article has been published in partnership with Enmasse World.
‘Blind but with a vision for the future.’
This is how Thrissur’s Geetha Saleesh views herself. At the age of 15 — when she was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder that compromised her vision eventually leading to blindness — if Geetha was told that she’d don the hat of a businesswoman someday, she would have discounted it as a fantasy.
But today, her dreams are limitless.
No stranger to challenges, Geetha discovered early on that there are two antidotes to adversity — determination and perseverance. Currently, she is at the helm of ‘Home to Home’, a startup that prides itself on organic turmeric-based products. Her venture is witnessing impressive success.
Astounding, isn’t it? The ripple effect of a simple idea!
As Geetha strides into her manufacturing unit every morning, her enthusiasm is evident. After all, she is living her dream. But her story is not in isolation; it echoes the untapped potential that lies within many “Entrepreneurial Households” such as hers across India, even in small towns, cities and villages.
The EPIC Stories Video contest organised by Enmasse World in collaboration with The Better India was an attempt at underscoring the journeys of millions like Geetha who are the drivers of the country’s next economic wave. The contest called for entries from across the country of people who are turning their dreams and aspirations into reality by doing a range of things, from starting businesses to innovating in everyday life, thus bringing financial growth to their households. Storytellers from all corners of India joined in and the contest provided them with the stage to bring the struggles and victories of Entrepreneurial Households (a term coined by Enmasse) to light.
What are Entrepreneurial Households? You’ll recognise them as savvy, business-minded, resilient households with multiple income streams and strategic borrowings, all leveraged for growth, and you’ll find them all around you, and across the country.
The goal of the contest, thus, was to send out a clear message that these homes are no longer a sidenote in the margins. They hold the transformative power to shape the future of the country’s economy.
A contest like this provides the opportunity for existing and new entrepreneurs and business leaders to move the gaze away from big cities and disposable incomes to small towns and core services, and they’ll find that the market potential is immense. Enmasse World calls this the Economic Power of Industrious Communities, or the EPIC Opportunity.
A new age creed
In a 2022 story, Forbes India called owners of small home businesses the ‘OG entrepreneurs’. The moniker is backed by statistics. According to a 2024 report by Praxis Global Alliance for Enmasse World, in FY 2023, India’s 247 million entrepreneurial households drove an $8.8 trillion transaction value — with a significant portion being informal transactions, unleashing a new economic landscape.
The rise in home-owned businesses and their success are a nod to the notion that the country’s economic prospects do not necessarily lie in the hands of commercial enterprises. But rather, that magic can often be brewed in the smallest of farms and home kitchens. That’s where India’s collective growth story is unfolding, every single day.
Dreams, after all, do not need space; they only demand resilience.
While we celebrate these heroes, the journey doesn’t end here. It is just the beginning. The common misconception still says that individuals from such smaller towns and cities are an economic risk and that this segment is not ready for commercial engagement, for reasons such as the unwillingness or inability to pay for quality goods and services. There is a presumption that these communities are not economically vibrant and that people want to move to big cities in the pursuit of economic growth.
The road of economic vibrancy has long been crowded with commercial and mainstream consumption. This is why, under the banner of the EPIC Opportunity, Enmasse World is advocating a shift in perception and calling investors, entrepreneurs, customers, you and me, to give the Entrepreneurial Households a chance.
Geetha’s story is reflective of this. It is also one of the winners of the EPIC Stories Video contest. Here’s a look at the other four winners.
The champions of change
While Geetha found her calling in the kitchen, Maharashtra’s Yogesh Gawande found it in the fields. Watching his brother battle pesticide poisoning was both heartbreaking and inspiring for Yogesh, a resident of Waluj village. He went on to start Niyo Farm-Tech, which crafts simple, innovative, and affordable agri-equipment that ensures farmers are not in direct contact with pesticides. One of their hit products is the wheel-based sprayer. Today, farmers in 22 states across India are being impacted through Yogesh’s innovation.
Sharing a similar vision to empower farmers is a young businessman Mohit Runge from Pandhurna, Madhya Pradesh. His ‘Keshava Dairy Plant’ has a dual vantage — it contributes to farmers’ income as milk is collected from them to make milk-based products, while local youth employed at the dairy earn an income.
Sushant Uniyal is regarded as something of a hero in Dadur village in Uttarakhand. Sushant had just completed his media studies in 2017 when he says his brother had a brainwave to return to the village and experiment with mushroom farming. “We started with 2 kg and today we produce 100 kg daily,” he smiles. Inspired by Sushant, many more villagers decided to turn their attention to mushroom farming, with some joining Sushant’s farm and others taking guidance from him.
Similarly, in Hyderabad, Keerthana’s healthy snacking brand 9Nutz is seeing a great response. The brand offers a range of millet-based sweets and chikkis (traditional Indian sweets made with nuts and jaggery). The inception of the brand lay in Keerthana being appalled by people’s dependence on fast food. She decided to give them something healthier to satiate their cravings and lack of experience did not deter her from diving headlong into entrepreneurial waters. And how!
The five heroes you watched above are the torchbearers in what is a long procession of people across India, including from small towns and rural geographies who have dreams they want to scale. Such an untapped mine of ambition and economic prosperity presents a once-in-a-generation inflection point to support their aspirations.
All that is needed is a bridge to bring them to the shore of economic prospects.
And we can build it together.
Edited by Pranita Bhat
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