• Like Us | Follow Us
Contact Us

Punam Hariharan

Image One

Founder

Image One

I grew up as an Armed Forces Kid along with my two younger sisters and a brother as my father Mr Dhrub Singh Samyal, served in the Indian Air Force, eventually retiring as a Flying Officer in 2004. Hailing from Jammu and Kashmir, my roots lie in some of the most beautiful regions of the majestic Himalayas. My mother Mrs Susheela Samyal, is an artist who loves nature and animals. She constantly kept herself busy designing, painting, gardening, cooking and making food preserves and all of that left an indelible impression on me. And thus, grew my inherent love for nature, colors, designs and all things culinary!

I was always drawn to nature, it’s ingenious forms, and the unfathomable variety of colors and elements. Back in the days of my childhood, one would often find me loitering around the orchards in my grandparents and relatives houses in Samba, Jammu and Basholi amidst the lofty Shivalik Hills, with the blue mesmerizing river Ravi flowing through like a Painting… and in the Foliage of the Military campuses where we lived.

I loved taking these long walks around places where we lived and travelled around J&K, Punjab, Karnataka and Assam. The soothing streams, sitting around the small temples, watching village elders do their morning pujas and lying idle on the isolated stone culverts on hilly roads… just soaking in Mother Nature’s beauty was my favorite way of passing time during summers.

I cannot put in words now the joy these wanderings brought to my little soul. My cousins and I would relish Black Berries, Guavas, Bers, Jamuns, Sugarcanes, Grapes, Mangoes salvaged in big baskets after a storm from the farms… and the natural mushrooms that would spring up magically after the first rain!!

Winter holidays would be spent with three generations of family sitting together in the open bright sunny yard, making delicious citrus fruit salads and relishing them. Celebrating New Year’s Eve with a big gang of cousins from the village, playing and hopping from home-to-home for sweets are some of my most cherished memories of growing up in those simple fun filled times. There was no doubt that I felt one with mother nature from the earliest days of my life…

I eventually went on to Graduate from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore and then worked at various jobs for 20 years, learning and growing with multiple companies. I started my career as an Organic Certification Inspector, then moved to Online Agri Marketing Operations, the first of its kind in 2000 and then to the Project Management and Administration roles with IT Consulting companies like Sapient and Fidelity Investments. My entrepreneurial journey started in Delhi in 2012 with Real Estate and then with Interiors and Furnishings.

I am also a creative professional; I continue to write for advertising projects (PVR- Sung by Shankar Mahadevan), UP Yoddha- Sung by Daler Mehndi, Mauka- A single sung by Palash Sen etc) and for Indian Cinema as a Lyricist (Listen Amaya- featuring Deepti Naval, the late Faroukh Sheikh and Swara Bhaskar, 2013) and have been a Voice Over Artist for many Television Commercials for almost 20 years now.

I have enjoyed the freedom of Start-ups and have equally loved the security of Corporate jobs. I am eternally grateful to God for every experience that I have garnered, and I value all my relationships with so many amazing people who I have met in this journey.

“Every day is an adventure into the unknown, best lived with love in our hearts, compassion in our deeds and dreams in our eyes”

Indraneel Hariharan

Image One

Co-Founder

Image One

I am a Musician and a Dreamer! Having toured the world with my fusion band Mrigya, I have been exposed to many cultures and the quest for the true meaning of Life seems to be my full-time vocation!

I too grew up as a Military kid, my father had a distinguished career in the Indian Air force, eventually retiring as an Air Vice Marshal. He served for a long time and that meant me travelling across the country extensively. I have always preferred the sound of breeze through trees over the blaring cacophony of the Big City… the pitter patter of rain, over the sound of vehicles rushing away in a hurry to reach nowhere… I have always loved Nature. I love the hills, the beaches, the forests, the rivers and the seas. It gives me a perspective that’s very different from a city life’s self-centered existence.

As a professional, I wore many hats before ending up as a musician. After graduating in Life Sciences from Delhi University, I got myself a Diploma in Sales and Marketing Management from The National Institute of Sales (NIS) and eventually got hired as a Marketing Executive in HCL. A job I promptly quit after I got an offer to be a TV journalist with Business India Television.

Then I worked as an Economic Journalist with programs like Business Agenda in Star TV, Crossfire with Jairam Ramesh on Doordarshan and also In Focus with Karan Thapar for the Home TV Network. After my stint in TV, I decided to join the Music Industry as an A&R Executive, and worked closely with the launch of Silk Route, a band that became a household name later.

I was also the Founder Member of Orange Street, one of the premier Rock Bands in the early 2000s, and played Bass Guitar for artists like Silk Route and Shubha Mudgal. Parallelly, I started working as a music composer for many TV and Radio commercials for major brands like Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Dettol, Mahindra, Hero Group, Pepsi, Coke, Honda, Lays and many more. I continue to score for TVCs even now having won awards like Abby Silver and Kyoorius for some of my work with well-known Brands. I also scored for TV channels like Discovery, Star and Zee TV, winning awards like the Promax Gold and the Green Oscar along the way.

My band Mrigya won the prestigious Herald Angel Award at the Edinburgh Festival and was also awarded the Karmaveer Puraskaar back home. In the middle of all this, I scored music for a few feature films, with “Listen Amaya” being nominated for Best Music Debut at the GIMA awards 2013. I have had the privilege of working with amazing artists like Shankar Mahadevan, Daler Mehendi, Hariharan, Shaan, Mohit Chauhan, Vikku Vinayakram, Shubha Mudgal, Palash Sen, Jackie Shroff and many more throughout my musical journey and have performed at venues like the Royal Festival Hall in London, The Bolshoi in Moscow and the ICC Arena in Durban to name a few...

As a musician, I always wanted to make a difference. Reach out to people, touch their lives in a positive way, basically try and do my bit to make a world a better place. Well, music also helped expand my horizons by travelling around the globe, exploring new lands and new ideas, making me curious and to ask the right kind of questions. Moreover, as a fitness enthusiast, I was taking care of my body by working out regularly and “eating right” … or was I??

“I think therefore I am!”- Descartes

Organic Amrit

The Elixir Of Life
Image One

Organic Amrit is a journey that started with the primary mission of helping all those working towards a better planet, giving them a credible platform. The damage caused by the mindless use of Synthetic Fertilisers and Chemical Pesticides are long-term and has a detrimental impact on not just us Humans, but the whole Planet. More so, our incessant consumerism has driven industrialisation to dangerous levels of irresponsibility which has harmed the Planet and it's ecosystems to an extent that has crossed all thresholds of danger. Such a pace of devastation is just not sustainable anymore!

We were very clear… even early on, as a new couple, that someday in the near future we would definitely strive to live a sustainable life as much as possible… and our dream was always to retire to a self-sustaining Organic Farm.

But, as our respective jobs restricted us to living the city life, we thought that a good way to begin would be to start consuming Organic Food. It was easier said than done, as we found it increasingly difficult to source healthy organic food cause it was available only at boutique shops, or places where an ordinary consumer would have to make special arrangements to reach. But, that was a couple of decades ago and now, the internet has changed all that. Yet, the credibility of these products was… and is, still a concern, as even today the market is constantly getting flooded with almost anything in the name of “Organic”. The fact that it was being touted as a “fad” or was the “in thing” was making matters much worse with a lot of unscrupulous operators trying to make a fast buck by passing off non-certified and fake goods as Organic by using fancy stickers and packaging! The same was the case with “sustainable” goods!

So we decided that something had to be done and from this need to address these matters of quality, transparency, traceability and credibility, “Organic Amrit” was born!

Organic Amrit is your “One Click to a Sustainable Way of Life !”
Image One

Through this venture we promote genuine efforts by the Organic Farming Sector consisting of not just farmers, but entrepreneurs, organizations, NGOs, tribal and women welfare institutions as well… spreading awareness and education on the need for safe food, healthy farm practices, and adopt an eco-positive lifestyle . Our mission is to curb the damage being done to our only home- our Beloved Earth, by promoting “Organic Consumption” and the switch to a “Sustainable Way of Life”, thereby creating a demand for safe and nutritious food and further provide ecologically responsible alternatives to regular consumer goods. We believe that it’s not too late yet, if we make the right choices to start reversing the harm done to Our Planet by large scale irresponsible Agricultural practices and rapid industrialization driven by our endless greed and consumerism!

Organic Amrit was amongst the Final Top 20 Start-ups of the WSP 3.O program, a one year program that started in September 2020 with >10600 ventures, out of which only 210 ventures were selected for incubation. We were incubated by IIM Bangalore, NSRCEL and co-incubated by IIM Nagpur, InFed.
We thank the program sponsors Goldman Sachs and Kotak Mahindra Bank. We were honoured to be a part of a wonderful cohort of ambitious, inspiring and enterprising women. We will always be thankful for all the mentorship, timely guidance and support that we have got from this program!
Visit Our Eco Shop
Image One
Image One
Image One
Image One
Image One
Get in Touch