Of Chandigarh-based businesses thriving despite all odds

Vijay C Roy

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 5

Due to the pandemic, the past one year certainly hasn’t been easy for start-ups and small businesses. While some may never reopen, others are surviving all odds and ramping up their businesses, thanks to early adaptation, determination and innovative technology.

It is an open secret that restaurants, bars and retail operations have been the hardest hit since March last year. However, Chandigarh-based Ocado, an organic food outlet started in March last year by city lad Rajat Bhandari survived all odds. “We had just started when the pandemic prompted a city mandate requiring all non-essential businesses to close. That did not deter us. Once it was allowed to open, we came out with different strategies to keep the business going and started engaging with customers,” said Rajat.

He helped Covid patients during the lockdown and curfew where complete families were in isolation by distributing organic foods for free. “We started the initiative to serve society. However, gradually, our name spread by word of mouth because of quality and now we have a good customer base,” said Rajat. According to experts, the ability to adapt and pivot quickly contributed to the survival of businesses in the sectors hit hardest by the pandemic.

Similarly, started in January 2020, an Agri-tech startup, Faarms, by Chandigarh-based Alok Duggal has been a boon for farmers in the tricity area, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan during the pandemic.

Faarms, an e-commerce marketplace is catering to farmers. The idea is to help the farmers purchase farming inputs from some of the best-known brands in the world and obtain critical crop-related advice at the click of a button.

The company is now connected with 8 lakh farmers in 20,000 villages of the absolute hinterland of India. The idea was simple. They wanted to be the Amazon for the farming community.

“The pandemic has impacted farmers across the country with a limited availability of agricultural inputs and feed for livestock. Faarms has enhanced its operation from single state to six states, including Chandigarh, covering more than 20,000 villages to ensure the timely delivery of quality inputs on farmers’ doorstep,” said Alok Duggal, COO & Founder of Faarms

Another entrepreneur, Ram Prasad, incorporated Bharat Lights and created an LED bulb assembling business in Panchkula during the Covid-induced lockdown with limited resources.

Fast forward to this day, they are now able to sell over 5,000 LED bulbs a month mostly through their B2B distribution network established over time. Now, he is looking for an online marketplace to launch its products as it would add to the ability of creating a larger pool of customers, according to Ram Prasad.