Prasun Bhowmik

2013 - 2014

Alumni

Legatum Fellow

From:

India

Sector:

Food & Beverage

Location:

India

Degree:

MBA, Sloan School of Management

Prasun Bhowmik’s goal is to build several minimum-skill and highly scalable businesses that will consolidate the highly unorganized Indian retail sector, targeting the poor not just as consumers but also as producers. He hopes to define his life by creating opportunities that will enable others to forge their own life paths. In 2011, Prasun co-founded Chai Shai Etc., a for-profit social enterprise that provides a dignified livelihood for women from marginalized communities.

Prasun believes that there is one element critical to success: opportunity. Having worked extensively with low-income communities, he has learned that once impoverished families are given the right tools, they acquire a sense of dignity and work towards self-sufficiency.

His goal is to start hundreds of outlets of Chai Shai Etc., a food and beverage chain, with an inviting and clean environment, an affordable price point, and multiple product offerings. Moreover, women from underprivileged backgrounds will run them. This minimum-skill, highly scalable and profitable business will empower women through skill development, create social change, and provide an additional and stable source of income that is crucial for the family’s financial well-being.

Prior to coming to the United States, Prasun was as a primary school teacher in suburban Mumbai, India. Prior to that he was a consultant with PwC. Prasun graduated from Birla Institute of Technology and is an MBA candidate at MIT Sloan School of Management.