Life Gives You Wings
Not Redbull
Dear Friends,
Over the past few days, I have been sitting with this caffeinated truth that is definitely not powered by Redbull: Life Gives You Wings.
Perhaps, the high has something to do with the intense conversations I had over the last few days at the Indian School of Business Food Systems Event. I anchored and moderated a stellar panel on four axes of food systems: Sarkaar (State), Bazaar (Markets), Samaaj (Society) and Sanchar (Media, Data and Narratives) with four amazing people representing each of these four axes.
The conversations at the event had all six flavours you would typically find in Ugadi pachadi many of us in this part of India make at the onset of new year in the Indian calendar.
It’s fascinating to see my relationship with Indian calendar deepening, beautifully designed with deep agrarian wisdom marking marking the end of the winter crop (Rabi) harvest and the beginning of the new agricultural cycle before the monsoon. In contrast, Gregorian calendar looks lame with January 1st selected for roman administrative reasons. 
I heard spicy tales of courage from entrepreneurs sharing their conviction in leaving high-paying jobs and venturing into the wild dark forest called food systems. I heard sour challenges from entrepreneurs frustrated by the price-ceiling that makes Indian consumers settle for mediocre food choices and bargain the hell out of everything everywhere, despite having higher financial cushion. I heard bitter challenges of newly minted entrepreneurs from civil society ecosystem reeling from guilt, unable to wear the entrepreneur hat after being in the NGO sector that abhors markets and entrepreneurship. I heard tangy tales of enthusiasm from freshly blossomed entrepreneurs braving along the volatility of the market. Of course, I also heard salty tales of ordinary citizens sharing profound truths that they have discovered once they stepped out of mindless moneymaking hamster wheel.
Yesterday, during a round table dialogue on changing food choices of consumers, I mumbled something that startled me.
The art of producing safe, healthy and nutritiously rich food is not a scalable, sustainable business model, unless until you are willing to make trade-offs that limit to what extent you can bring them within the constraints of your supply chain.
At the end of the day, this much is clear. Markets are a product of tradeoffs and conversations.
Many who work on bringing safe and nourishing food to the market are charged by the fuel of passion, not sound economics underpinning what they do. Unless we build a solid economics case that lets them continue doing what they are doing, they are going to get soon burnt out and we are going to be left with mediocre foods choices.
With my work transitioning from a strict agritech/agribusiness lens to Food and Agriculture System lens, I am watching life lovingly providing me with wings to go beyond my comfort zone and help me address this regenerative transition challenge head on.
Now that I gear up to host 44 agripreneurs at sixth Regenerative Agripreneurs Retreat at Bhopal, my impact thesis is expanding beyond entrepreneurship.
My ecosystem work is getting bit more structured. I now have a calendar of activities I plan to do over the next six months. It’s looking ambitious as of now and I want to push my boundaries with three audacious attempts and an encore of Agripreneurs Retreat in September 2026 at Chandigarh.
Bring together agripreneurs at conflict-laden Srinagar for a day long immersion with agripreneurs and explore how agripreneurs of Srinagar and Kashmir can work with the India Agripreneur ecosystem. Time Period Planned: May 2026
Bring together bankers, investment professionals for an exclusive 1 day workshop on funding regenerative transition. Time Period Planned: June 2026
Bring together religious organisations that work on regenerative transition and see how to build ecosystemic gameplays. Time Period Planned: July 2026
After Bhopal Agripreneur Retreat, I plan to do the next Agripreneur Retreat in Chandigarh on September 24-25-26.
Why Chandigarh? I am dreaming of Regenerative Punjab and haven’t done anything in that beautiful land of mustard fields, now addled with youngsters either deluded by Canada dreams or drug abuse.
Each of these are wildly ambitious in my current assessment and I honestly don’t know how I am going to pull these off. I guess. When life gives you wings, you simply have to fly!
If you have ideas and connections that can help me pull these off, do ping me. When I was growing up in south of India, one of my favourite cartoons was Captain Planet.
I could still sing the Theme song with a mug of Kombucha!
I don’t know if Captain Planet would approve of this. But I am convinced that when entrepreneurs come together as a collective, we could make a dent in the impact universe!
Wish me good luck and prayers!
Love and Cheers,
Venky