Bangalore and Kolkata,  22^ND Nov– Intellecap’s Investment Banking Group is thrilled to announce a landmark M&A deal in the e-pharmacy space.  This is the second transaction in the  healthcare space in recent times.

Intellecap IBG acted as the exclusive sell-side advisor to Sasta Sundar Health buddy Limited in its majority divestment & joint venture with the Flipkart Group.

SastaSundar.com offers a digital healthcare and pharmacy platform supported by a network of more than 490 pharmacies, and aims to address the issues of access to affordable and quality healthcare in India by providing original products from authorized sources and delivering them across the country.

The launch of Flipkart Health+ & the majority stake in Sasta Sundar Marketplace Limited will enable the focus on providing consumers access to affordable & convenient healthcare across pan India.

ICap’ IBG equity team worked with Sastasundar group from ideation stage to finding global partner in the most exciting e-pharmacy and internet backed healthcare services space in India.

In the pic Intellecap IBG MD Pramod Kasat with Leaders from Flipkart and Sastasundar

Walmart-owned Flipkart on Friday said it will acquire majority stake in Kolkata-based Sastasundar Marketplace that owns and operates online pharmacy and digital healthcare platform, SastaSundar.com.

While the deal size was not disclosed, Flipkart said it is foraying into the healthcare sector through the launch of Flipkart Health+. ”As part of this development, the group has signed definitive agreements to acquire a majority share in Sastasundar Marketplace which owns and operates SastaSundar.com, an online pharmacy and digital healthcare platform, as it focuses on providing consumers access to affordable and convenient healthcare,” a statement said.

SastaSundar.com offers a digital healthcare and pharmacy platform supported by a network of more than 490 pharmacies. The company is backed by investors from Japan, namely Mitsubishi Corporation and Rohto Pharmaceuticals.

Flipkart Health+ will leverage the combined strengths of the Flipkart Group, which includes its pan-India reach and technology capabilities, with SastaSundar’s deep expertise to provide consumers end-to-end offerings in the health-tech ecosystem, it added.

Flipkart Health+ will endeavour to give millions of Indian consumers access to quality and affordable healthcare, starting with e-pharmacy and will add new healthcare services such as e-diagnostics and e-consultation over time, the statement said.

Flipkart Health+ will report to Ajay Veer Yadav, Senior Vice President, it added.

The consumer internet ecosystem in India is growing rapidly as consumers recognise the opportunities and convenience that digital adoption is enabling in their lives, Flipkart Senior Vice President and Head – Corporate Development Ravi Iyer said.

He added that with growing awareness and focus on health heightened by the pandemic, there is a large opportunity and demand for affordable healthcare and ancillary offerings. ”We are excited to enter this space through this investment in SastaSundar.com, a company that has established itself as a trusted partner for lakhs of consumers through genuine products, a technology-powered platform and a wide network.

“The synergies between the Flipkart Group and SatsaSundar.com, combined with our commitment to prioritize our customer’s needs, will help us grow and transform online healthcare in India,” Iyer said. SastaSundar was founded in 2013 by B L Mittal and Ravi Kant Sharma.

In a regulatory filing on the BSE, Sastasundar Ventures Ltd said Sastasundar Healthbuddy Ltd (SHBL) has entered into a share subscription and purchase agreement and a shareholders’ agreement on Friday with Flipkart Health Pvt Ltd, pursuant to SHBL’s divestment of its equity holding in Sastasundar Marketplace, a wholly owned subsidiary of SHBL.

SML is a step-down subsidiary of Sastasundar Ventures Ltd and post the transaction, it will cease to be a step-down subsidiary of the company.

The filing noted that the company will not be receiving any consideration sale/disposal in relation to the proposed transaction under the agreements.

”The total consideration defined in the Definitive Agreements will be received by subsidiary and step-down subsidiary of the company upon completion of the proposed transaction. The total consideration will not be less than the fair market value determined based on the report by the registered valuer,” it added.

As per the filing, SML’s standalone turnover was Rs 2.58 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2021, while its net worth was Rs 4.17 crore.

“At SastaSundar.com, we are focused on developing innovative ways to provide access to affordable healthcare easily and conveniently, building a trusted network for authentic medicines, diagnostics and wellness,” SHBL founder and Chairman BL Mittal said.

Through this partnership with Flipkart, the company sees an opportunity to further grow and reach a larger consumer base, using complementary technologies and logistics infrastructure, he added. “This partnership with Flipkart is a strong validation of the capabilities we have built and will accelerate SastaSundar’s mission to provide affordable healthcare to all Indians in a convenient manner,” SHBL founder and CEO Ravi Kant Sharma said.

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Mumbai, 5th November– Recently Circular Apparel Innovation Factory got an extensive 3 page coverage titled, ‘The Textile & Apparel sector looks to build capabilities to drive the transition to a circular economy’ by Assistant Edito Arbind Gupta, Assistant Editor, Business India, for their Special Edition, November Issue.

This is now available both Online and on Print.

The textile and apparel (T&A) manufacturing is considered to be one of the most polluting industries. In fact, the T&A industry is the second most polluter globally. Over 20 per cent of industrial water pollution occurs due to garment manufacturing. Globally, 80 per cent of textile waste generated is not recycled and often sent to landfills or incinerated. In fact, the industry is responsible for polluting over 8 per cent of global climate. With growing economy and changing demographics, the consumption of textiles and clothing has gone up by more than 60 per cent today as compared to that in 2000 and this has significantly aggravated the whole situation. In the past 15 years, the textiles production has almost doubled.

Amidst all this, the industry is finding itself in a quandary as it is struggling to balance between its mainstream targets of productivity & production and the sustainability goals. The current linear system of production, distribution and usage of T&A is not sustainable as there is less regard for environment impact. Experts are of the view that the current `take-make-dispose’ approach does not only adversely impact the environment and society, but also the future business of the T&A industry.

While there are a few sporadic interventions across the value chain happening in order to address the issues and making the value chain more sustainable, the concerted effort is missing. In order to deal with these issues in a more holistic manner as also set the goals and achieve them in a time-bound manner, an industry-led platform – Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF) – has been put in place recently in India. Started in 2018 and formally launched in November 2019 at Sankalp Forum’s 11th Global Forum in Mumbai, CAIF is a global initiative of Intellecap, the impact advisory arm of the leading impact investing organisation, the Mumbai-headquartered Aavishkaar Group, which works to build businesses that can benefit the underserved segments across Asia and Africa. Intellecap builds enabling ecosystems and channel capital to create and nurture a sustainable and equitable society.

CAIF is supported by the DOEN Foundation, a Dutch foundation supporting initiatives in the field of culture and cohesion and in the field of green and inclusive economy, as also Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail Ltd (ABFRL) as its founding anchor partners. To accelerate the shift of the industry from its current ‘take-make-dispose’ approach to one that is more circular across the lifecycle, CAIF works with a diverse group of stakeholders from across the value chain.

Circular goals

“As an industry-led platform, CAIF’s mission is to build the ecosystem and strengthen capabilities to drive the transition to a circular economy in the apparel and textile industry. The platform is building the textile industry’s innovation infrastructure by bringing together key stakeholders to collaborate and work together on achieving the five key circular goals: increasing the use of sustainable inputs and material; maximising the utilisation of clothing & textiles; increasing the recycling of clothing; boosting production through renewable inputs; and minimising negative social impacts and increasing social responsibility,” says Venkat Kotamaraju, director, CAIF.

“We are pleased to partner with Intellecap to accelerate sustainable fashion concept through CAIF and build an industry level platform for a circular textile ecosystem. We intend to bring forth ideas and innovations to add more strength to our pioneering work around sustainability. The association with Intellecap will help us create, collaborate and mainstream the conversation around circular economy and sustainable fashion,” states Ashish Dikshit, managing director, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd.

The industry lacks an infrastructure to deal with textile waste

The industry-led body has over the years, partnered with a host of like-minded organisations with whom it is building a body of work spanning the ecosystem. For example helping identify the key circularity levers and mapping them against policy interventions that needed design (a policy-led programme in partnership with Centre for Responsible Business) and building a body of evidence on how designing for inclusion into circular business models can help deliver both ecological and social outcomes (a collaboration with Netherlands-based The Laudes Foundation).

Over the last three years, CAIF has been actively working with over 15 Indian and global brands through different pilots and initiatives, and has identified and mapped over 400 innovators across different dimensions of circular economy relevant to the textile and fashion industry. CAIF aims to have 50 to 60 partners in India and globally in the next 2-3 years and expand its presence beyond India and Bangladesh to others parts of the world especially global south economies like South Asia, like Sri Lanka and Nepal; East African countries like Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia and South East Asian countries like Indonesia and Vietnam.

The T&A platform is targeting these regions because they are critical from the global value chain in the fashion industry. They are critical since global south accounts for a significant amount of manufacturing for the global value chain of the global industry. For example, India is one of the biggest importers of textile waste from the US and the Europe. The country recycles it and sends it back. Besides, more than 50 per cent consumption of fashion and apparel is in global south. Global South is economies outside the developed economies like the US and the Europe.

“With the global south economies being significant contributors to sourcing, manufacturing, exports, recycling and consumption, in the complex global value chain, it was crucial for the global south to have a voice and a seat at the table. While there was growing momentum globally (especially in Europe) from individual organisations, we saw an opportunity in taking an ecosystem approach that will not just surface the dots (gaps and stalemates) but also help connect the dots (mobilising capital, knowledge and networks to build the ecosystem) in interesting ways for impact to happen at scale. More importantly, while the dominant narrative globally around circular economy emphasises economic and ecological value creation, CAIF aims to alter this narrative that also includes how we ensure no individual or group is left behind on this path towards progress,” explains Kotamaraju.

Kotamaraju: building the ecosystem

CAIF is looking to make the work of the apparel, textile and the fashion industry more sustainable (resource efficient, resilient and responsible) through reducing carbon emissions (both avoidance and removal), while creating green and circular jobs for those employed across the value chain. Some of the partner brands and manufacturers have very clear and ambitious targets like for e.g. moving to recycled water usage (away from fresh water) by 70-100 per cent between 2025 and 2030, eliminating energy usage and consumption by 30-50 per cent by 2030, replacing virgin material usage with recycled material use by 50-70 per cent by 2030 etc.

World changing companies

In the last three months, the industry platform has created a showcase of circular innovations and sustainable innovations to at least 60 suppliers of the top 3 brands and manufacturers. In fact, it has recently entered into partnership with IKEA Foundation along with Enviu (the Netherlands-based social organisation that together with partners, builds world-changing companies that address social and environmental issues) to support innovative interventions that are designed to not just deliver on environmental outcomes but also help create green livelihoods. Through this partnership, CAIF is looking to build a circular textile waste management model in the next five years. The IKEA Foundation is funding the initial and seeding phase of the five-year project, which will be implemented as a joint initiative of Enviu and CAIF.

In the next five years, the programme aims to deliver on clear outcomes, one, on environmental outcomes, it is looking to divert 20 million kg of textile waste away from the landfill and help recycle them and find its way back into the value chain. By recycling it and reclaiming value from the textile waste, the project is reducing the dependence on natural resources by replacing some amount of virgin material with recycled materials. Through this programme, CAIF is looking to create at least 5,000 new green jobs for base workers. In the first phase of this ambitious programme, Enviu and CAIF will be seeking partnerships with manufacturers, brands and innovators to scale and replicate solutions to manage textiles waste; as well as NGOs and other civil society actors to build skills and capacities amongst the waste workers in India.

Creating better livelihoods

“The IKEA Foundation has always worked towards supporting people living in underserved communities to afford a better life. There is huge potential in the textile waste sector not only to become more sustainable but also to create better livelihoods for a large number of people at the bottom of the pyramid. We believe that green and circular entrepreneurship in India’s textile waste sector offers an opportunity for vulnerable workers to lift themselves out of poverty while protecting the planet. That’s why we are happy to be part of this initiative,” says Vivek Singh, Head of Portfolio – Employment and Entrepreneurship, IKEA Foundation.

Avers Ankie Van Wersch, CEO, Enviu, “We believe building impact-driven companies that prove and showcase it is possible is key to achieving a new normal: a textile industry that serves people and planet. Enviu’s top-down impact-driven venture building approach, combined with CAIF’s bottom-up ecosystem building amongst waste workers is a winning combination, maximizing impact. We look at the obstacles to change in the textile industry and fill in the gaps with new ventures, while CAIF starts from the capabilities of the waste workers. The ventures we build create income for the waste workers. I have seen the impact our circular ventures create on families first-hand.”

Textile and apparel manufacturing is considered second most polluter globally

It may be noted that India is one of the world’s largest textile producers and importers of used clothing, but lacks an infrastructure to deal with textile waste, leaving an estimated 4 million informal waste workers trapped in low-income, unreliable jobs. Enviu and CAIF, together, will build capacities and skills amongst these waste workers, and build successful circular enterprises to reclaim value from textile waste. This will reduce the environmental impact of the clothing industry while enabling the workers to increase their incomes and afford a better life. India is the one of the largest employers of workforce in textile and apparel, only next to the agriculture sector.

CAIF has also been partnering with Lakme Fashion Week for the last two years to co-create and develop two initiatives – Circular Design Challenge and Circular Changemakers. It firmly believes that a credible dent on any of the 2030 SDGs isn’t possible without the role of the private sector. Through the body of work so far and a host of interested and willing partners, the industry body is already shaping work beyond just India.

In Bangladesh, it is building local and indigenous capacity within the apparel manufacturing sector for recycling of blended textiles waste (collection, sorting and recycling) and establishing an ethical and traceable collection mechanism for PET collection and recycling which is free of child-labour. In Sri Lanka, the communities living around and dependent on oceans, play a crucial role in designing programmes that look at how brands and manufacturers can help provide these underserved individuals and communities access to safe drinking water and sanitation, while restoring ocean biodiversity. Such an intervention is anchored in the community working towards zero leakage of textiles and plastics waste into the oceans through responsible and resource efficient collection, sorting and recycling solutions that create economic value for the underserved communities in the mid to long term.

All in all, CAIF’s efforts range from helping decarbonising the textiles and apparel supply chain in the global south, to getting to zero leakage of waste into the environment (from textiles, plastics, agriculture or forest products) while creating circular and green jobs in the manufacturing, recycling and the innovation ecosystems.

Mumbai,  1^st November– The Article, ‘Closing the Loop on Plastic Waste in India’s Textile and Apparel Industry’ by Siddharth Lulla, Lead Corporate Strategy and Enterprise Engagement, Circular Apparel Innovation Factory talks about how due to weak enforcement and the continuing popularity of plastic packaging among retailers and consumers in the absence of any suitable alternative, the country has not been able to achieve  substantial success in reducing the usage of plastics.

This article, was the 5th one as part of a 24 article thought leadership series we have forged with the Business World Group.

India’s plastic consumption has grown significantly over the last decade. As per industry estimates India consumes c. 16 million tonnes of plastic on an annual basis, contributing to generation of c. 9.47 million tonnes of plastic waste annually. Only 60% of the total waste generated is processed while the remaining is unsegregated, littered and ends up in landfills or the natural environment.

Around 43% of manufactured plastic is used for packaging purposes, majority of which is Single Use plastic i.e. used only once and disposed. While plastic packaging plays a key role of protection, marketing and advertising, the complete lifecycle of this is not thought through, resulting is substantial waste generation.

India’s textile and apparel (T&A) industry is one of the world’s largest, and is a major contributor to global textile and apparel production and consumption. The industry is estimated to be worth USD 190 billion by 2025-26.2 It currently employs more than 45 million people making it the second largest employer in India – contributing over 15% of the country’s export earnings, and almost 7% of the it’s industry output. Although the industry exhibits a positive trend in terms of growth on the back of an exponential rise in fashion retail and online shopping, it is a significant contributor to the Single Use plastic packaging waste generation.

Current Policy Landscape around Single Use Plastic in India

The Government of India has announced a number of steps to phase out and eventually completely stop Single Use plastics usage to reduce the country’s plastic footprint. The 2016 Plastic Waste Management Rules put curbs on use and generation of plastic packaging waste. This includes prohibition of carry bags made of virgin plastic less than 50 microns in thickness in order to facilitate ease of collection and recycling of plastic waste. Under the new rules the government now plans to ban bags less than 120 microns by next year.

Additionally regulations for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)4 have also been introduced, according to which the producers (manufacturers, importers and those using plastic in packaging) as well as brand owners would be held responsible for collecting the plastic waste they generate and ensure a minimum percentage of the produce is recycled or used in supply.5 The proposed EPR framework has provisions to impose penalties if producers fail to meet their targeted collection.

Due to weak enforcement and the continuing popularity of plastic packaging among retailers and consumers in the absence of any suitable alternative, the country has not been able to achieve substantial success in reducing the usage of plastics. However, a clear shift from regulatory intent to action is now visible. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has sent notices to 52 companies for not registering and specifying their single use plastic disposal plans under the EPR framework.

It is therefore, imperative for the T&A industry to adopt a strategy aligned with the principles of the circular economy to address challenges posed by single-use plastics waste.

The concept of a single-use plastics free circular economy, which can harness the benefits of plastics while addressing its drawbacks, and deliver significantly better system-level economic and environmental outcomes, is gaining traction in India and the rest of South Asia. Transition to such a circular system therefore, involves keeping useful plastics in the economy but out of the environment. This will entail simultaneous progress on multiple fronts including a re-evaluation of the plastics lifecycle, new commercially viable circular business models, development of alternative materials, new technologies, better land-based and marine plastic waste management solutions, awareness generation and enabling policy interventions.

In order to do so, India must adopt an integrated approach to collecting, segregating and recycling plastic waste that would ensure adequate recovery and collection mechanisms enabling producers and manufacturers to recycle plastic waste through a plug and play model.

There is an emergence of Integrated closed loop solution providers which have a holistic goal of reducing the generation of single use plastic in the ecosystem by collecting the waste packaging material from business/ end consumers, recycling it and converting it back into usable products. Such solutions fundamentally address the habit of waste disposal rather than just replacing the material through programs or mechanisms to collect all the recycled plastic products from various distribution points in the chain.

In an initiative to demonstrate a business case of how the entire plastic waste generated by a fashion brand can be collected, recycled and prevented from going to the environment, the Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF), an initiative by Intellecap, facilitated a pilot project in October 2020 between House of Anita Dongre, a brand at the forefront of sustainability in India and Lucro Plastecycle Pvt Ltd, a Mumbai based enterprise which collects and develops packaging from recycled post-consumer plastic waste.

House of Anita Dongre currently has 1200 retail touch points across the country. The pilot when scaled will recycle c. 6 Million polybags on an annual basis and manage the entire plastic waste generated by House of Anita Dongre at a pan India level. CAIF will disseminate the learnings and insights on best practices from this initiative to the industry. As per Rohan Batra, (Head Sustainability & CSR, House of Anita Dongre) the partnership with Lucro and CAIF has been huge step in making the brand reduce its plastic footprint and bring in efforts to reduce the carbon footprint due to plastic waste generated so far. Rohan points out that the pilot has already been successful in introducing 6.5 lac polybags with 60-75% post-consumer recycled content in the supply chain. Since its inception the pilot has resulted in a monthly average of 500 kgs of plastic waste and 1.25 lac polybags being recycled at House of Anita Dongre resulting in a conservative 30% savings in carbon footprint.

Lucro also provides a blockchain enabled traceability tool called Satma CE, which validates the origin & supply chain process of the post-consumer waste used. Ujwal Desai, MD, Lucro Plastecycle Pvt Ltd mentions that Lucros trademarked Plast-E-Cycle process creates a circular economy for plastic, making the recycling and remanufacture of plastics more efficient and high quality. It definitely helps that Lucro is involved in every step of waste management, from collection and segregation, processing into granules, product design and manufacturing of high-quality, innovative and eco-friendly products.

The partnership between House of Anita Dongre, Lucro and CAIF demonstrates that integrated closed loop solutions are poised to create a cascading effect in India’s T&A industry. It is evident that with the right support, innovative solution providers are ready and willing to drive significant environmental and social impact both in the country as well as demonstrate circular models that can be scaled globally.