Ludhiana, February 13
In a significant initiative to support emerging agripreneurs, the School of Business Studies (SBS) and the Team NIDHI–Technology Business Incubator (NIDHI-TBI) at the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), provided strategic guidance to aspiring entrepreneurs in the banking industry. The two-hour interactive session, held on February 12, aimed to equip the participant with practical insights into marketing, packaging, networking, innovation, and food labelling-critical success drivers for agri-based enterprises.
The visitor, Ritu Aggarwal from Dugri, Ludhiana, currently operates a home-based bakery producing healthy millet-based biscuits and cookies under the brand name AR Bakers. Her visit to PAU was facilitated through NIDHI-TBI, a flagship project of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India (GoI).
Seeking technical and business expertise to scale-up her venture, Aggarwal approached the SBS and NIDHI-TBI team for structured mentoring. The session was led by Dr Ramandeep Singh, Principal Investigator (PI), NIDHI-TBI, and Director, SBS, who shared valuable perspectives on enterprise development and market positioning. To provide real-world exposure, Ms Aggarwal was introduced to Farmative, a PAU-trained commercial baking brand operating at scale in Ludhiana, enabling her to understand operational efficiencies, market linkages, and growth-oriented decision-making.
Special emphasis was laid on marketing strategies and business scaling, highlighting the importance of brand storytelling, customer segmentation, and multi-channel sales. The discussion also focused on transitioning from a home-based setup to a structured enterprise by strengthening distribution networks, leveraging digital platforms, adopting cost-effective promotions, and building long-term customer relationships to ensure sustainable growth.
Dr Poonam Sachdeva, Co-Principal Investigator of NIDHI-TBI (DST, GoI) and Principal Food Technologist, also appreciated Aggarwal’s vision and zeal to achieve new heights. Gurinder Singh, CEO, NIDHI-TBI, provided critical insights on packaging authentication, regulatory compliance and statutory labelling requirements, stressing their role in building consumer trust and market credibility.
Complementing this, Sameer Gautam, Business Manager, NIDHI-TBI, highlighted marketing strategies specific to healthy food products. He also emphasized on transparent communication of nutritional benefits, clean-label positioning, consumer education, and targeting health-conscious segments through both online and offline outreach. Faculty members from SBS, including Dr Navneet Kaur Gill, Assistant Professor; Dr Sarishma Sharma, Assistant Professor; and Dr Manveer, Teaching Assistant, also shared inputs on pricing strategies, cost control, consumer behaviour, and entrepreneurial mindset development, offering a holistic business perspective.
By integrating technical guidance with market-driven strategies, PAU is actively enabling agripreneurs to build resilient, scalable, and sustainable agribusiness ventures, said SBS Director Dr Ramandeep Singh.
