Aardra Chandra Mouli
Out of the millions of students enjoying their summer vacation, only a few thousand end up watching half-hour documentaries on Discovery and Animal Planet, a couple of hundred are moved by them and just a handful are inspired enough to stand up for change. Aardra Chandra Mouli is one of the few.For her, the environment comes before anything else.
“This interest in life and the life sciences led me to select biotechnology and biochemical engineering as my subject of study,” she says. With a bachelor’s degree and some work experience under her belt, Aardra went on to complete her master’s in Management from Warwick Business School, UK, with distinction and a full-scholarship. After coming back to India and working in a small business to understand how to go about managing a start-up, she set up her own. In 2014, with the input of her classmate and colleague Gayathri, Aeka Biochemicals Pvt. Ltd. - the first fully women-owned biotech and biochemical start-up in Kerala - was born. “We at Aeka have one single, simple commitment - the environment comes first. We strive to develop and manufacture products that are beneficial not only to mankind, but also to the Earth,” she says. In the heart of Trivandrum city, Aeka’s Vazhuthacaud facility is optimised so as to be eco-friendly, pollutant-free, solar-powered and a green, zero-effluent zone. ‘We mean our green,’ is Aardra’s war cry.
Gayathri Thankachi
Gayathri Thankachi joined a biotech firm just like other sales and marketing professionals out there looking to get themselves some industry experience, but the seed of setting up her own bio-tech firm had been sown in her mind during her college days. In June 2014, she along with her classmate Aardra Chandra Mouli, set up Aeka Biochemicals. Aeka, the motto of which is ‘Environment First’, is the first fully women-owned biotech company in Kerala. Biochemicals mainly aim at the production of microbial plant growth promoters there by encouraging organic farming. Gayathri dreams to realize her vision to find an eco-friendly solution for water treatment, and other environment-related problems and create benchmarks for green solutions in biotechnology. Through Aeka, Gayathri articulates her vision on woman empowerment along with the motto of creating a society with better health and an enriched environment to nurture our future. Aeka was also shortlisted and selected for the Kerala State Entrepreneur Development Mission Scheme of the Government of Kerala in association with the Kerala Financial Corporation (KFC).