Two Kerala women entrepreneurs get NITI Aayog honour

Aardra Chandra Mouli and Anju Bist were among the 75 women honoured as part of 'Women Transforming India' initiative by NITI Aayog on Monday.

Two women entrepreneurs from Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram were honoured by NITI Aayog. Aardra Chandra Mouli of Aeka Biochemicals and Anju Bist of Amrita SeRVe (Saukhyam Reusable Pad) were among the 75 women honoured as ‘Women Transforming India’ by the NITI Aayog.

Anju Bist's Amrita SeRVe is the first in the world to make reusable menstrual pads from banana fibre, which comes from agro-waste. Saukhyam Reusable Pads are now sold internationally. The company also aims to ensure that the same high-quality pad they export can be made available at affordable prices in rural areas of the country.

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Till date, they have sold and distributed over 500,000 pads, helping prevent the emission of over 2,000 tons of CO2 equivalent annually. In turn, this has also helped eliminate an estimated 43,750 tons of non-biodegradable menstrual waste.

Aardra, meanwhile, is a biotech engineer, entrepreneur and entrepreneurship researcher. She is the founder and Managing Director of Aeka Biochemicals Pvt Ltd, the first fully women-owned environmental biotech company in India. She wants to make science and entrepreneurship accessible to all women. She holds an MRes in management from UCL, an MSc in management from Warwick Business School, and Bachelors in biotechnology and biochemical engineering from the University of Kerala.

Aeka Biochemicals is helping to incorporate green user-friendly options which are effective.

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