BENGALURU: Nupur Poharkar, a 28-year-old budding social entrepreneur, has been creating a sustainable impact in the lives of local women using pine needles known for causing forest fires and groundwater table depletion. With her unique approach, Nupur has trained 100 women to make several artefacts like trays, planters, baskets, coasters and fashion accessories, using dried pine leaves.
Speaking to TNIE, she said, “Today there are not enough opportunities in villages, we see a lot of migration to urban areas where they do menial jobs and climate change impacts them the most. I wanted to address these problems and so far in two years we have sold 8,000 products under Pirul Handicrafts,” Nupur explained.
Another such individual is Dr Steward Fracian through his SocioDent startup which is focused on building dental innovations for the dependent and disadvantaged individuals in the country. “There are over 20 million individuals in India who are dependent and in need of aid to maintain basic dental hygiene. The product helps people use it easily, with just a click of a button and access different water cycles based on their sensitivity and maintain oral hygiene,” Steward said.
These sustainable social enterprise pitches were made at SBI Youth for India (YFI) Conclave 2024– the CSR arm of the State Bank group, in the city on Sunday. The event held a live funding round titled ‘Sahyog’ along with notable jury members to analyse their impact on society and raise seed funds for their initiatives.
Out of the nine pitches made a total of five received funding of Rs 45 lakhs in total, Rs 9 lakh each. Sanjay Prakash, MD and CEO, of SBI Foundation said the youth plays a pivotal role in driving transformative change within the country.
“The projects spearheaded by our fellows have not only accelerated rural development but have also fostered inclusive and sustainable growth across 20 states in the remotest corners of our country.” The SBI YFI projects have created an impact in areas such as women empowerment and promoting entrepreneurship in rural India.