Hyderabad-based entrepreneur, Aruna Dara’s story is truly inspiring. There are many women entrepreneurs; there are many who dream of becoming entrepreneurs. But Aruna had worked in the telecom sector for five years and then took a career break for 15 years. However, she wanted to turn an entrepreneur, and that’s when a chance conversation with a friend of her’s brought forth the idea of opening a unit for making plastic-free sanitary napkins.

Incidentally, her friend was researching the hazards of using sanitary pads with plastic in them, and together they researched on the subject. Finally, they decided on banana fiber and immediately implemented their idea. The 48-year-old is now the proud owner of a unit that manufactures biodegradable napkins, apart from supporting sick units in Telangana and helping other women in tier-2 and tier-3 cities to start production.

Her small and medium enterprise (SME), Apna Green Products, came into being in 2019. She says she realized that girls and women in tier-2 and tier-3 cities did not have the necessary knowledge about the problems they could face due to regular sanitary napkins. Aruna focused on them and has tied up with Flipkart for her e-commerce business. She gets 10% of her current revenue through e-commerce.

Her unit is part of Walmart’s Vriddhi program that has helped Aruna get access to the e-commerce marketplace and inputs on supply chain and logistics. Walmart VP, International Partnership Services shares that through Vriddhi, they have seen MSMEs build and fulfill their dreams and add digital expertise, adapt to world-class business processes, and establish themselves as national and global brands.