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The story of economic revival in India is often told through Big Tech and e-commerce. This is understandable. Tech companies can be innovative, highly lucrative, and a signal of prosperity and status.
Similarly, we hear a lot of stories about economic change as seen through the prism of India’s metro cities and larger urban spaces. Why? Accessibility. With some of the largest media and business hubs located in these big cities, stories from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai all dominate business news and economic coverage.
The EPIC podcast captures the imagination in a different way.
For across India another story emerges, a story of economic prosperity and aspiration from India’s smaller towns and villages: India’s Industrious Communities.
This is their time. Never before has India been so hyper connected through smartphones, WhatsApp, Aadhaar, and UPI. Infrastructure has improved and communities have never been so well connected via roads, rail and air. The demographics of these communities is yet another factor; these are young communities full of energy and aspirations for the future.
Looking at India’s economy at a district level provides a unique lens to understand this economic revolution. This is a revolution powered by Entrepreneurial Households, or houses collectively acting as Industrious Communities. These are the epicentres of India’s growth.
The podcast explores five districts: Sirsa, Kheda, Cuttack, Belgaum and Bilaspur, all places that show vibrancy, endless potential and transformation. We showcase voices from experts, locals and the visionary founders of Elevar’s portfolio companies, such as LEAD, Samunnati, Sarvagram and CureBay, alongside Team Elevar, as they work in collaboration to drive meaningful change across India.
By focusing on Elevar businesses, we can see how investment and capital can build infrastructure, empower communities and change millions of lives.
Let’s take a quick look at what some of the entrepreneurs and founders we interviewed in the podcast say about how their businesses are transforming India:
Utpal (SarvaGram) - “We are presenting about 125 catchments across five states of the country with our own shopees. [That is] our own infrastructure, [of] about 1500 people across these locations and they range from Sojat in Rajasthan to Harihar in Karnataka. That's the [geographic diversity] we are talking about.”
Priyadarshi (CureBay) - “We started small because healthcare is an area where trust and credibility matters a lot. So we did things small ... we got one partner, we got two partners, we got a few hospitals willing to work with us, we got a few customers agreeing to come and see our clinic. But [every day], the needle moved, we [made] that little bit more progress than what we had done the day before. And that's what kept us going. [Now] I think we feel pretty good that there are hospitals who [want] to associate with us, there are doctors who [want] to associate with that. There are partners who want to take healthcare to their areas where it's not available. So it's a long way to go. But vindication of what we started.”
Anil (Samunnati) - “We have about 600 people currently and about 50 offices, but I consider Samunnati to be much larger than the 600 people and the 50 offices. It includes every client and every collective that we work with. So ... farmer collectives [are] our primary primary clients, because the reason why we exist is to make their members, the smallholder farmers, lives better.”
Anil (Samunnati) - “We are the largest network of [collectives] ... [and in these collectives] there are about 8 million smallholder farmers, assuming each of these farmer[s] is one person being represented by a family, we are basically talking about ... 40 million lives. [We also have] 3500 agri enterprises [so] we have a responsibility for about 1/3 of this country ..."
Dileep (Cloudphysician) - “Our one intensivist, that used to take care of 10 patients a day, can now take care of 80 to 100 patients a day.”
Sumeet (LEAD School) - “The first school we signed in Sirsa was four years back… And then over the last three years, we've added four more schools. Today, we have five schools, [and] this year, we will add five more ... So we have seen that ... there is clearly development.”
To learn more about these amazing individuals and their incredible businesses, or the epicentres at the heart of India’s economic revolution, please listen to Elevar’s podcast!
