Best of Weekender: From a bespoke matchmaking service to a social entrepreneur betting on India’s indigenous snacks

For many Indians, finding the right life partner is an arduous task as hundreds of opinions and considerations need to be taken into account.

But what if, stripped of these outside influences, one could connect with a person chosen exclusively for them keeping their particular interests and characteristics in mind? Sounds like a dream? It isn’t, because Vows for Eternity, a bespoke matrimonial service founded by Anuradha Gupta in 2012 promises to do just that.

The US-based startup is a bespoke global matchmaking service that connects like-minded individuals after gauging their personal requirements.

The pandemic-induced lockdowns saw thousands of out-of-work migrant workers hitchhike from metros to their hometowns - television visuals of the same made entrepreneur Kaushik Prasanna want to do something about the desperate situation.

In 2020, Kaushik started FooDef Pvt Ltd with his college friend Ravi Hegde and “started selling handicrafts, clothes, and stitched masks. There were also a few folks making homemade snacks, which were very indigenous to Karnataka,” says Kaushik. Both founders had full time jobs at the time.

Seeing how popular homemade snacks were, in January 2021, the duo founded Kaamik, a digital platform that sells ethnic snack boxes with traditional sweets and savouries. It has so far sold at least 700 boxes – across Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru.

The job of a life coach is to guide people who have lost their sense of purpose in life. This requires focus, a calm demeanour, and an in-depth understanding of life.

Mumbai-based Dr Nidhika Bahl helps people heal holistically and teaches them to be their best selves through her focussed methodologies and practices.

She professes to have these in spades and has mentored a number of athletes, entrepreneurs, high-performing business leaders, corporate professionals, educators and celebrities, including Manushi Chhillar, who was crowned Miss World in 2017.

In 2022, the term plant-based is no longer relegated to being a fad. It is instead a way of life. The product that has seen the most iterations in recent years is milk, with a number of tasty and healthy plant-based milk alternatives available in the market. Oat milk from a brand called Alt Co, headquartered in Bengaluru, is the most recent entrant to make waves in the segment. 

While other plant-based alternatives such as soy and almond milk have been around for a while, oat milk is a relatively new product in the Indian market. This is why Alt Co chose to start with this plant-based variant.

For women, bringing attention to breast health is critically important, as it is a high risk area for cancer. Sadly, we often only bring attention to it if we reach a level of crisis.

Our breast health is linked to the state of our hormones in the body. If we look deeper, we can understand that taking care of breast health can prevent swollen and tender breasts during PMS, support healthy lactation post pregnancy, and support prevention of breast cancer at any age.