Namita Banka
Namita Banka is an Indian entrepreneur, and founder of Banka Bioloo. Banka BioLoo Pvt Ltd is a proprietary firm started by Namita Banka in 2008. Namita is a science graduate from Delhi University, with a post graduate degree in metal designing, she also worked at jewellery designing and manufacturing for eight years at Surat, in Gujarat.[1]
Career
Namita started out as a jewellery designer in Surat in 1999. After her husband was transferred to Hyderabad in 2008, Namita enrolled in a course on social entrepreneurship and tried her hand at selling ink cartridges and green office supplies, tendering to Indian Railways. Through her contacts, she learnt about one of their big problems: sanitation. In 2009, she joined a course in NGO management, after which she started her own company which initially worked as a service agent for Vibhu Composite Works and Aikon Technologies, original equipment manufactures of controlled discharge toilets. In 2012, Namita bagged a `1.2 crore annual toilet maintenance contract on certain East Coast Railways lines.[2]
Banka BioLoo
Banka BioLoo is environmentally friendly and sustainable solutions for sanitation. Banka Bioloo uses bio-digester technology.[2] The bio-toilet – Bioloo – is a regular structure with a toilet bowl; the only difference is that the bowl is attached to a bio-digester tank that contains bacteria-embedded sheets. Bio-digester tanks need to cleaned and replenished with bacteria at periodic intervals. The toilet construction needs a trench on which the bio-digester tank sits. When human waste comes in contact with bacteria, it takes two-three days to decompose and gets converted into carbon dioxide, methane and water. Methane can be used as fuel while recycled water can be used for gardening. Banka Bioloo is installing bio-toilets and 750-litre bio-tanks in public schools and individual households in rural areas of Andhra Pradesh, funded by an NGO. Namita advocates a general shift in thinking about human waste disposal. ‘The government is spending millions of rupees on building public toilets that are not maintained because nobody wants to clean up other people’s waste.’ After the trains, Namita’s goal is to ‘bring a toilet to every household in India.’
Awards
Banka BioLoo for winning the coveted Sankalp Award for social enterprises at the Sankalp Unconvention Summit 2013 in Mumbai. [3]
Board & team
- Namita Banka – Founder and CEO
- Akhilesh Tripathi – Director (Technical)
- Yusuf Mirza – Deputy General Manager (Projects)
- DVL Padmavati – Human Resource Head
Clients
- Indian Railways
- Integral Coach Factory
- Engineering & Construction
- International Paper
- Larsen and Tubro (L&T)
- APIIC – Moulali, Andhra Pradesh
- NIET
- Government of Andhra Pradesh
References
- ↑ ""No shortcuts for success," says Namita of Banka BioLoo". Retrieved 2014-03-03.
- 1 2 "She Means 'Dirty' Business". Retrieved 2011-11-30.
- ↑ "Awards". Retrieved 2016-11-02.