When an MBA graduate and a CA joined hands to make a business out of selling flowers

Tuesday January 09, 2018 , 2 min Read

Shivani Maheshwari from Jaipur and Vamika Beheti from Delhi have joined hands to promote floriculture in Haryana, but only after choosing not to opt for high-paying jobs. Shivani (23) is an MBA graduate and Vamika (25) is a Chartered Accountant (CA) and is married to a businessman from Delhi. With the combination of their educational backgrounds fitting in appropriately, the duo started Unistar Agro which is now backed by the Government of Haryana as the two women are supporting plenty of traditional organic farmers with their knowledge and resources.

The inception of the idea occurred in 2015 when Shivani clicked some pictures of polyhouse farming nets on the Rohtak to Delhi route on the national highway. After some googling and research, she decided to venture into this business and met Vamika Beheti, who was running a factory in Bahadurgarh and owned land in Tanda Heri village in Jhajjar district. As reported by Indiatimes, Unistar Agro grows Lillium, Gerbera, Rose, Tuberose (Rajniganda), and Gladiolus.

Speaking with Times Now, Shivani said,

That was in June 2015. My parents and I visited polyhouse farms in Jhajjar and Rohtak. I was convinced polyhouse farming would be my startup.

With the state of Haryana being home to several such farmers, eventually everything fell in place for both women and the business is now blooming. Recognising their efforts in empowering the farmers, the state government honoured them with an award and even went on to offer incentives and subsidies.

As of today, the duo which now knows what is working out for them, wants to extend their business Unistar Agro all across the country and even abroad to make significant profits out of it.

Growing at a compounded annual growth rate of about 30 percent, India’s floriculture industry is likely to cross Rs 8,000 crore mark by 2015. Currently, the floriculture industry in India is poised at about Rs 3,700 crore with a share of a meagre 0.61 percent in the global floriculture industry which is likely to reach 0.89 percent by 2015, according to a study titled, ‘Indian Floriculture Industry'.

Do you have an interesting story to share? Please write to us at [email protected]. To stay updated with more positive news, please connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

Government of Haryana