Saffron, Shoes and Living Fossils

Dear Reader,

Have you ever thought of stepping out of the house without any footwear? I am sure the answer is no. Footwear is a necessity, well almost. But lakhs of farmers who toil in the fields to grow food for us often don’t have access to shoes. Plastic footwear is slippery, canvas gets damaged in mud and water in no time and the durable ones are unaffordable.

So three friends, who completed post-graduation in transportation and automobile design at the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, decided to make shoes for farmers. My colleague Aruna writes that Santosh Kocherlakota, Nakul Lathkar and Vidyadhar Bhandare set up Earthen Tunes which began production in 2022.

It makes water-resistant, sustainable farmer shoes using indigenous wool sourced from pastoral communities. Earthen Tunes’ expensive urban range cross-subsidises farmer shoes, priced upwards of Rs100. The startup clocked Rs65 lakh in revenues in FY24. It’s a business from the heart and I recommend you read their story.

My colleague Niroj also wrote a very interesting story from Odisha. Scientists in Balasore told him they are using in-vitro fertilization (IVF) to conserve horseshoe crabs, which have existed for 445 million years. Horseshoe crabs existed even before the dinosaurs but are now an endangered species.

Scientists grow their larvae in labs and release them into the sea after three months. With a 90% success rate, IVF is boosting the conservation of endangered species.

Last week, I spoke to two brothers growing saffron on the roof of their house in Hisar, Haryana. While Naveen Sindhu quit his job in the UK to grow saffron back home, his brother Praveen is an engineer. From just a 15 X 15 ft (225 sq ft) room, they produce saffron that sells at Rs5 lakh per kg in India, the US and the UK. They use aeroponics and the details are in the story.

My colleague Karan wrote that top-performing mutual funds are a better investment option than stock hunting in the equities market. He has listed ten mutual funds that have given 60 percent plus returns in the last one year and beaten most benchmark indices.

Our Sunday feature is on Purushwadi, a tribal village in Maharashtra. As India readies to celebrate its biggest festival, my colleague Anu has written about children in this village following a Halloween-like tradition on Diwali.

Diwali is also the time of the year when Team 30Stades takes its annual break. So there won’t be any newsletter next week as we chill out with our loved ones.

Team 30Stades wishes you and yours a happy and sparkling Diwali! May the lights illuminate every life!

Warmly,
Rashmi