Tea Processed by Rural Women Entrepreneurs Launched as Premium Karbi Artisanal Tea at Rural Udyamita Conference 2025

Tea processed by Rural Women Entrepreneurs (RWEs) from small tea grower (STG) households in Karbi Anglong was launched as Premium Karbi Artisanal Tea at the Rural Udyamita Conference 2025, held on 12 December 2025 at the North Eastern Development Finance Corporation (NEDFi) premises in Guwahati. The conference brought together senior representatives from government, development agencies, financial institutions, corporates, and rural enterprises to deliberate on strengthening an inclusive and sustainable rural entrepreneurship ecosystem in Northeast India, with a specific focus on Rural Women Entrepreneurship (RWE).

DM Kakati, Assistant Director of Tea Board, presenting the Premium Karbi Artisanal Green Tea

The conference was organised by the Council for Social and Digital Development (CSDD), Digital Empowerment Foundation, North East Development Foundation, and Unifiers Social Ventures, and served as a high-impact platform to examine policy reforms, institutional partnerships, digital inclusion, and market-linked enterprise strategies that enable rural women to transition from livelihood activities to sustainable entrepreneurship.

At the event, Grassroots Tea Corporation (GTC) facilitated the aggregation of chemical-free, artisanal green tea processed by RWEs from STG households and supported its retail marketing under the common brand ‘equifarmtea’. The launch highlighted the potential of indigenous, value-added tea emerging from Northeast India and showcased how women-led processing enterprises can be linked to formal markets through responsible value-chain facilitation.

A key policy and strategy session featured speakers including Dr. Vivek Kunj, National Mission Manager, DAY–NRLM, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India; Nandita Sharma, Lead, Social Sector, ONDC; D. M. Kakati, Assistant Director, Tea Board of India, Guwahati; Supriya Kapoor, Director, Women in Wings; Pallab Goswami, State Project Manager – Non-Farm Livelihoods, ASRLM, Assam; Prakash Lakra, Program Director, SeSTA; and Karma P, Editor-in-Chief, EastMojo.

Discussions focused on improving access to digital marketplaces, institutional finance, quality certification, and ecosystem-level support for rural enterprises. The importance of value-chain development—particularly in tea and other agri-based sectors—was emphasised as critical for ensuring the long-term sustainability and scalability of rural women-led businesses in the Northeast.

The launch of Premium Karbi Artisanal Tea at the conference underscored the role of collaborative models in connecting rural women producers to markets, while preserving quality, traceability, and ecological sustainability. Through this engagement, Grassroots Tea Corporation and its partners reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening women-led value chains and promoting inclusive rural economic growth in Northeast India.