Udhyam Vyapaar aims to make the mission “Making Bharat Entrepreneurial” come alive among the nano-entrepreneurs in India, whom we call Vyapaaris.
Half of India’s GDP is contributed by small businesses and 35% of the workforce are self employed workers, a result of jobless economic growth and widespread underemployment. Many are necessity-driven, facing stagnating or declining earnings, and often remain just a push away from slipping below the poverty line. We work with nano-entrepreneurs among these, who earn under INR 25,000 a month.
These realities shape our mission to help Vyapaaris reach their highest human potential, help scale their businesses and make them successful in life – thereby making entrepreneurship respectable and aspirational.
We ideate together with the vyapaari and their ecosystem to design solutions, which are then tested, refined, and measured on their potential to create scalable impact.
At Udhyam Vyapaar, every program is built through a grounded, iterative solutioning process. Our interventions don’t begin with training, they begin with understanding the business problem. We work closely with vyapaaris to identify real business gaps and combine deep field insights, business expertise, and personalised mentoring to help vyapaaris strengthen their business.
Taking Livelihood beyond Skilling >>>
1-0-1 Mentoring and Handholding for Business Success
Deep Dive across all 4 pillars of business by own ground team, with support from experienced business veterans
Outcome Focused: Robust data + Monitoring & Evaluation
Each community of vyapaaris is different, and so are the hurdles they face. That’s why we build tailored programs for distinct cohorts, shaping our interventions to match their realities. As we learn from the field, we adapt our projects, staying relevant and focused on driving real business outcome.
Districts
States
Vyapaaris
Annual Income Uplift
Vyapaar current projects
Vyapaar past projects
Kamlesh made the switch from the coal iron to an LPG iron box and is now able to take control of how she spends her time – be it when she eats, when she’s able to go back home, how many batches of clothes she completes in a day and how long she has to stand and work. She took back control of her own time with the switch to the LPG iron box.
Shivangi has been tailoring since the age of 16, fixing up things in her home. After associating with Udhyam she started taking up work from outside her home and exploring different designs and styles, contributing financially in her home and nurturing aspirations to be remembered – not by someone else’s name – but her own.
Rajesh has not just made the switch from coal to LPG iron boxes for himself but is also advocating for cleaner, safer livelihoods. He calls the shift “the next step towards progress” for himself and the ironing community. By switching from a traditional coal-based iron box to an LPG-powered one, he’s setting an example for others in his trade and encouraging fellow vyapaaris to make the shift.
Indra Kelva started her business with just ₹1,000 given to her by her mother-in-law. Through Udhyam’s support with new ideas, market linkages, sourcing of materials and a diversification of her market she was able to see an increase of ~50% in net income within a span of 3 months. She is now able to provide for her children, her grandchildren and also finds joy in her work.
Annapoorni worked as a waste picker, a domestic worker and later began selling wire baskets to support her family and give her children better opportunities. “Udhyam supported us in all the avenues, from sourcing better materials, exploring new designs, to connecting with markets. Over these months, I’ve started seeing small but steady increases in my profit margins
Mageshwari spent a lot of her life tending to her household and children while dreaming of contributing to the financial security of her household. She learned crocheting to gain a new skill that could help her achieve economic independence. Through the establishment of a crocheting circle in Anandapuram along with a reliable sisterhood of women she explored new patterns, learnt how to source material, showcase her products in three local exhibitions earning over Rs. 2000 from the events
Shankar Maruwada is the Co-Founder and CEO of EkStep Foundation, a philanthropic mission he co-founded in 2015 along with Nandan Nilekani and Rohini Nilekani, to improve basic education for 200 million children in India. The Foundation has co-created an open-source free to use digital infrastructure called Sunbird (www.sunbird.org) which works towards achieving this purpose. DIKSHA, the national school education platform, is one of multiple national initiatives that leverage Sunbird to provide access to digital content for learners and for capacity building of teachers. He has more than 25 years of experience across corporate, entrepreneurial, nonprofit and government sectors. This allows him to bring the best of thinking from different lenses, which he has used in shaping EkStep’s mission and its strategic choices of achieving population scale impact for learning, using technology. Shankar is deeply passionate about leveraging technology for large scale transformation in society. He was part of the startup team at Aadhaar; in fact, he was responsible for naming it. He also set up one of India’s first data analytics companies – Marketics. This cross-sectorial experience and interdisciplinary approach has been a driving force in pursuing scale solutions, innovations and collaborations for EkStep’s education mission. He also mentors startups, social entrepreneurs and not-for-profits. Shankar is a member of the National Steering Committee tasked with developing the National Curriculum Frameworks based on the National Education Policy, 2020. He also been on multiple Government committees and task forces, including DIKSHA, NDEAR (National Digital Education Architecture), iGOT (Integrated Government Online Training). His alma mater IIT Kharagpur’s motto of ‘yogah karmasu kaushalam’ (Yoga is excellence at work) and its message of ‘Dedicated to the service of the nation’ is also his chosen path in life. He is also an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
R. Natarajan, fondly called Nats, co-founded Foundation partners in July 2018 advising companies on scaling, governance and profitability. Prior to this he was Chief Operating officer at UC RNT Fund, managing USD 400 Mn and Managing Director at Helion ventures, a VC firm with Asset under management of over USD 1 Bn for 10 years, and in various leadership roles in Tavant Technologies Inc., US, and Wipro for 13 years. He is a qualified finance professional and a certified black belt in Six sigma by Motorola University. He is on the Board of studies at Christ University and in the Advisory board of Shasun College for Women in Chennai, Bethany High school Bangalore and Byramjee Jeejeebhoy School and College at Mumbai. He also serves on the Board of PHFI (Public Health Foundation India) and also a trustee of Youth For Seva, a large NGO focusing on self-reliant communities powered by selfless individuals for the last 13 years, currently whose volunteers cross 1 lac and beneficiaries cross 10 Cr across 14 states.
“Every human being deserves a dignified life out of poverty, and it’s well in our collective means to achieve that goal.”After 17 years of starting, scaling and turning around various businesses in some of the largest and most respected organisations globally, Atul started The/Nudge Foundation to do poverty alleviation work. Atul is now serving both The/Nudge and Givelndia as their CEO. Over his 5-year stint at InMobi as its Chief Business Officer, Atul helped scale the organisation to a global leader in mobile advertising, with operations in 20+ countries. Atul also served on the Board of Mobile Marketing Association. Prior to InMobi, Atul was the Head of Mobile Business for Japan & Asia-Pacific at Google. Atul has also done various general management, business development and sales roles across technology companies, including Adobe, Samsung and Infosys. Atul also served EndPoverty, a non-profit, as Chairperson for two years, working on various aspects of poverty, including water, sanitation, education, skill development, sustainability and women empowerment, and continues to serve as their Board Member. Atul has been named in the #40underForty list by The Economic Times in 2017. Atul holds a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the Indian School of Business and a B-Tech from the National Institute of Technology.
Binny Bansal is an Indian internet entrepreneur, who co-founded Flipkart, the leading e-commerce marketplace in the country. At Flipkart, he donned several hats including Chief Operating Officer, Chief Executive Officer, Group CEO, and Chairman. Post his graduation in Computer Science & Engineering from IIT Delhi, Binny worked at various companies, including a stint at Amazon India. In October 2007, along with his Amazon colleague, he co-founded Flipkart, an online book store based out of Bengaluru. In 2018, Binny steered Flipkart to close the largest global M&A deal in e-commerce, when Walmart acquired a majority stake in the company at an enterprise valuation of $22 billion. Binny is currently an entrepreneur-investor and mentor in the startup ecosystem. He has invested in several early stage startups, including Stellaps, Ather, Increff, Inshorts, Tracxn and Goodera. Growth stage startups include Acko, Cure.fit, Rupeek and GreyOrange, to name a few. Binny also co-founded xtolOx Technologies, offering technology tools, learning platforms and consultancy services to enable growth stage startups scale 10x. In December 2019, Binny relocated to Singapore with his family. Binny was ranked 26th among India’s 50 Most Powerful People in 2017 by India Today, and was awarded the 2016 “Asian of the Year” award by Straits Times of Singapore.
Narayan Ramachandran is an accomplished investment professional and social entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in global finance and developmental economics. He previously served as the Country Head of Morgan Stanley India and was the lead portfolio manager of its Global Emerging Markets and Global Asset Allocation teams, managing assets worth over $25 billion. Narayan is currently the Chairman and CEO of KludeIn I Acquisition Corporation and co-Chairman of Unitus Capital, India’s largest social enterprise bank. He is also actively involved in social impact through InKlude Labs, which scales interventions in education and public health, and serves on several boards including Vivriti Asset Management and Caspian Debt. Narayan holds a B.Tech. in chemical engineering from IIT Bombay and an MBA from the University of Michigan. He is known for connecting ideas, people, and capital to drive impactful change in areas such as social enterprise, environment, and global finance.
Abhishek Poddar is a prominent Indian industrialist, art collector, and patron of the arts. He is the Founder-Trustee of the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP) in Bengaluru, to which he has donated a substantial portion of his family’s art collection and the initial leadership gift. As Managing Director of Matheson Bosanquet, an 80-year-old company specializing in tea production, trading, and export, and Director at Sua Explosives & Accessories, a leading manufacturer of mining explosives in India, Poddar balances business leadership with cultural philanthropy. He also serves on advisory committees of several esteemed organizations including the India-Europe Foundation for New Dialogues and the Lincoln Centre Global Advisory Council. Recognized among Asia’s 2018 Heroes of Philanthropy by Forbes, he is deeply committed to promoting India’s rich artistic heritage.
He was born in Kolkata, attended Lamartiniere for Boys and The Doon School, and graduated from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata.
Ireena Vittal is a leading adviser on sustainable growth, digital transformation, and organizational scale-up. She serves on the boards of Asian Paints, Godrej Consumer, Diageo PLC, and Compass PLC, and advises nonprofits in education, legal reform, rural livelihoods, water, and urbanization. A former McKinsey partner for 16 years, she worked with global companies and co-authored influential reports on economic growth, agriculture, and urbanization. She holds a degree in Electronics from Osmania University and a PGDBM from IIM Calcutta.
