Ngangom Monalisa Chanu, a 29 year old woman, always aspired to become an established and successful woman before getting married and due to her persistence, she is today the managing director of Chanu Associates, a firm that manufactures handmade eco-friendly paper pen and pencil.
Using the brand name ‘Envi’, she produces handmade eco-friendly ball pens, pencils, disposable pen barrel and paper bags with different categories such as baker bags, grocery bags, confectionary bags, non-woven bags and so on.
She earned a name for herself not for producing paper pens or pencils but for manufacturing eco-friendly products. The uniqueness of the pens and pencils she manufactures is that the bottom part of the pens is filled with seeds of different vegetables, fruits, flowers and medicinal plants. The size of the seeds range from watermelon seeds to as small as mustard seeds. The varieties of plant seeds used are beneficial to environment, human beings and animals, she added. Some of the seeds she implants are of beetroot, lettuce, brinjal, marigold, leipungkhang, chigonglei and so on.
“Once the ink of the pen gets over or the pencil is used up, it can be planted in 30 degree angle with sands. The capsule covered ultimately gets off and a new plant is planted,” explained Monalisa.
In an interview with IFP, Monalisa revealed that she always has a soft corner to save environment and to keep it natural and organic from the midst of global warming and climate change. She wants to contribute as much as possible in saving environment which is not only meant her locality but the whole world, she added.
Monalisa is third among four children of Ngangom Dharma Meitei and Moirangthem Ushaleima. She had trained herself to be a medical practitioner, following the footsteps of her elder brother and sister in medical profession. However, observing the world decaying away with no much effort from people to preserve the environment, medical profession never satisfied her.
She took the step of going eco-friendly on her own in 2017 by forming Chanu Associates, and get herself enrolled with GST. She got done with the necessary procedures of entrepreneurship by March 2018. She first launched her product in the open market at the observance of Environment Day from June 3 to June 5.
Monalisa now produces 200-300 units and gets a profit of Rs. 50,000 per month. So far she has produced around 50,000 units.
Recently, she was also given loan by state government under Startup Conclave and if materialised, she plans to upgrade her machineries. Informing that demand is always higher than supply, the entrepreneur said that if mechanised she sets a target of producing 3000-5000 units per day.
In the interview with IFP, she mentioned that saving environment is the main motive of her service to the people. She in her own words urged all to “Save environment before it is too late to be saved.’
