India is going through massive transformation with crushing economic slowdown with growth expected to be negative for the first time in 40 years. The process is further expedited by the Covid 19 pandemic, resulting in massive economic disruption owing to ill-planned lockdown and virus containment strategy. All sectors of economy except agriculture are showing negative growth again for the first time in many years. Job losses have spiralled with over 20 mn salaried class people have lost jobs, over 1 mn MSME businesses have closed down, over 2.5 mn retail shops have closed shop and over 75 mn wage labour lost. There is a fear that in coming years if the growth does not pickup upwards of 10% of GDP we shall push another 200 mn people in poverty, that we had only uplifted from poverty in the last decade.

Such catastrophe opens up avenues for social impact enterprises for young entrepreneurs who seek opportunity beyond the conventional business models, where entrepreneurship drives social and economic impact. One of the most promising sector is the agriculture and food sector in which ekgaon has been working for last 10 years.