Entrepreneurship
in Assam : The Case of Tholgiri
“The
best way to predict the future is to create it.” – Peter Drucker
The last decade has seen a huge decline in job opportunities
for the educated young people in India. Assam has been no different. While it
is not easy to get accurate data on unemployment, according to Govt. published
reports like Periodic Labour Force Survey reports, Economic Survey, NSSO etc.
(Deka D., IJCRT-ISSN-2320-2882), the unemployment rate for graduate males (rural + urban) increased from 11.3% in
2017-18 to 13.7% in 2018-19. For the same period, the unemployment rates for
female graduates (rural + urban ) increases from 21.6% in 2017-18 to 27.6% in
2018-19, giving an overall average of 20.65% as educated unemployed youth who
are graduates. Among the females the educated unemployment rate is much higher
compared to the males. An interesting point to note is that even for young
women who have completed post graduation the unemployment rate has been 16.9%
as per last published reports in
2018-19. The Neo Covid-19 pandemic had played havoc, which posed
increasing pressure on the nation’s wealth with economic activities coming down
to a bare minimum due to country wide lock down situation – the effects are
still there to see.
A positive sight seen during these troubled times and thereafter was that many of the youth in Assam, had taken up entrepreneurship as individuals and small groups, trying different ventures. Some of them have seen success and others failed mainly due to lack of experience or guidance. These young entrepreneurs could take a look at Tholgiri – an ideal business model for ethnic produce founded by a professional journalist turned entrepreneur Manoram Gogoi, supported by his wife Monalisa Saikia in Guwahati.
Tholgiri
was founded in December, 2018 as a unique idea after a personal incident
with Manoram when he had experienced a Thali
(plate) full of local breakfast items for just Rs.10/- served at certain
Gupta Hotel at a boat ferry point in Jorhat
connecting to Majuli island in
the river Brahmaputra. Thus Tholgiri (master of the soil) was born
with a tagline in Assamese meaning ‘Proud being an Assamese’. It followed
almost all aspects in marketing in copybook style from resource planning,
production, supply chain management, front end sales outlet, packaging,
branding, trained manpower, communication et all. The backward integration has
been done by adopting villages in the hinterland and select rural households
across Assam and other North eastern states – particularly focusing on women
and youth who were skilled but unemployed.
Manoram Gogoi A typical Assamese lunch ThaliThe products
in Tholgiri’s own outlet come in
smartly designed and packaging having an “ethnic chic” look. Today in just over
four years of existence many of its products have found niche export markets. It
also runs a 100% ethnic restaurant in its only premise in Guwahati city
offering a large variety of recipes, some not even found in the villages these
days. This restaurant draws a sizable number of regular guests who look for
hygienic and authentic variety in ethnic cuisine.
Tholgiri offers a range in product lines viz.
rice (Gogoi loves to inform that there existed over 3000 varieties of rice in
Assam out of which around 1000 have survived the onslaught of genetically
modified crops), organic disposable crockery, edible oil, pickle, jiggery,
breakfast cereal, spies, bamboo based ornaments, handicrafts, incense sticks,
ethnic wears, tea (including Falab,
which had originated among the Singpho tribe of Arunachal Pradesh, where
Scottish gentleman Robert Bruce had picked it up and commercialized as Assam
tea and Maniram Dewan thereafter had become the first Indian tea planter and
one of the first entrepreneurs in Eastern India).
Tholgiri thus presents a unique model in marketing of ethnic produce as well as offers a lesson in understanding Assamese culture and prides of Assam.
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