May 11, 2020

While the startup world goes through testing times due to the COVID-19 outbreak, they haven’t compromised on their spirit to innovate solutions and make a difference. One such startup from a remote area of Assam has chosen to detangle a problem that especially makes more sense at this hour of crisis.

Aranyak Valley, a startup based out of Cachar district in Assam, has recently launched an app to organise all the donations and distributions of the COVID-19 relief materials by a number of volunteers & volunteering organisations in the district.

Taratari – Cachar Covid-19 relief resource module app lets the volunteering local teams to generate, crowdfund, source, monitor, and manage thousands of relief packets every day in different parts of the district, while keeping the district administration in loop for the daily passes.

“Typically, the local volunteering groups first have to get the names of the people in need and send the names to their leader. The leader, in turn, goes to the donors for fund. He then buys the relief materials, packages them, applies for passes from district administration, waits for approval, and finally sends his team to deliver. All these he does manually and in an unorganized fashion. With the help of Taratari app, he can easily control, monitor, and record all the activities. Through this app, the volunteers, donors, and administration can efficiently monitor the progress,” explains Gaurav Chakraborty, the founder of Aranyak Valley.

The app helps avoid duplication of delivery, instruments greater reach to the needy and efficient interaction with administration.

What’s remarkable is the fact that the app has been developed by the students and faculty of Aranyak Valley in just 7 days without any physical interaction between the developing members. The COVID-19 situation forced them to interact virtually from their respective villages with unsteady power and no broadband availability, and yet, come out as winners in just a week.

“It was a live validation opportunity for the students and faculty of Aranyak Valley, to test their knowledge and provide instant solution to a regional problem,” the founder adds.

Aranyak Valley was founded in 2017 in Silchar, offering skills training that are quintessentially ‘local’ in nature. The skill-based education model of the startup focuses on developing the local skills and finding them an opportunity to validate their skills.

The startup’s objective is to create self-sustainable “Pride Habitats” in Tier 3 and Tier 4 regions of Assam that would offer classes on skilling (IT & Non-IT) and farm appreciation and drive cultural agro-tourism in those regions. The model lets such regional ecosystem sustain on its own while maintaining the rich local cultural life. This will eventually inspire bright brains to focus on developing their own region rather than draining out in search of better opportunities.

Aranyak Valley has established 2 operational Pride Habitats in the Barak Valley, training 700 students and directly employing over 20 people in the region. Over 10, 000 native plants and trees have been planted. The startup has established over 50 diaspora connects for culture, script, skill, flora, and fauna.

Although comfortably placed in Dubai as the Regional Commercial Director (Asia & Middle East) of a reputed French company, Gaurav’s love for his state and his strong urge to give back to its people inspired him to set up Aranyak Valley in his hometown. His core intention has been to instill a sense of pride as well as empower the local people from the grassroots with essential skills, knowledge, and confidence to develop world-class solutions to the local problems.

When the skilled pool of teachers and students of the Aranyak Valley, together with local volunteering leaders, pulled off a smart app in just a week with zero physical interaction, it, indeed, arrived as a ‘Ta-da’ moment for the Founder.

By: Satarupa Mishra