We are the second year into the pandemic. But this year it’s different. The new year 2022 brought hope. No matter how fragile it may look, the world does come together when there is a crisis. There may be a war going on at multiple places but at the same time, we managed to send the biggest telescope into space through collaboration. There is probably a silver lining after all.
The year started quite usually for me. After 2 years of avoiding it, I finally caught the covid in the first week of 2022. I also became a part of the statistics. During my quarantine period, I worked on the application for a grant. My friends from college and I decided to help the Prantik Sundarban welfare association with a grant application.
For those of you who don’t know Prantik Sundarban Welfare Association(SWA) is an NGO started by the people of Sundarban. The organization did groundwork during Covid and cyclone Amphan and Yaas. You can read more about them on their landing page. We proposed a solution to provide income to rural India through digitization. We also made a video pitch. It was an interesting experience. You can read about it on the MIT Solve website. During the application process, we had several rounds of discussions.
Subodh Mondal, director of Prantik Sundarban Welfare Association, was telling about the problems faced by the marginalized people of Sundarban. And we Agnitra, Pranadeb, Deepanjan and I were discussing what are the global best practices. During the process, we realized we can achieve a lot if we collaborate. That’s why we came up with the idea of Sustain Delta Project.
Sustain Delta Project aims to be an open platform for discussion among various stakeholders. It aims to bring together various NGOs working on the ground with research experts so that problems can be solved through collaborations. Our first pilot project will be a collaboration between Prantik SWA and Harit Vikas.
Harit Vikas is an agrotech-based startup started by some like-minded people who want to revolutionize agriculture through technology. Sayan Chakroborty, Our CEO, will work closely with Subodh Da and Prantik SWA to increase the crop cycle to 2. Currently, around 60% of agricultural land is having only one crop cycle. Our goal is to increase it to two. We also want to help the Prantik SWA estimate the carbon captured through mangrove conservation. These can be traded in the carbon economy and the revenue generated can be invested into community development. It is going to be a huge task, and we will need volunteers.
If you think you can contribute to our cause, feel free to get in touch with us. We are available in various mediums. I hope you are doing well and investing your Fridays for the future. Stay strong wherever you are, whatever you are going through. There is probably a silver lining after all.
Greenspeed,
Jeet
Jeet Biswas 