Biscuit maker dishes out rotis for mid-day meals in schools

Rajpura-based medium-scale enterprise Om Engineering is contributing in a unique way to the mid-day meal scheme run in schools across India.

Originally a biscuit manufacturer in Patiala, Vidya Sagar decided to foray into manufacturing chapati-making plants and realised that such plants, if made at a cost-effective price, could solve the problem of many institutions.

"I was making enough money from my previous venture but a visit to a religious place where langar (community kitchen) was being organised proved to be a turning point in my career. I saw a sub-standard puri-making plant running at a high cost (power) and decided to diversify my business."

Now the director of Om Engineering, Vidya Sagar developed a gas-based chapati-making plant that could make 10,000 chapatis in one hour at the cost of Rs 300 per hour. The plant when run on power can make 4,000 chapatis in one hour at the same cost.

He exported these chapati-making plants to Muscat and Saudi Arabia, and discovered that there was ample scope to promote his plants in the export market. However, he wanted to concentrate on the domestic market. "The mid-day meal scheme of the government provided a huge market for my venture," Sagar said.

He was a major supplier to Naandi, an NGO founded by the leading corporate houses of India, which was running mid-day meal schemes in Rajasthan, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Sagar said he told the NGO about his plant and the fact that it was a more hygienic and quick way of making chapatis with minimum wastage.

"Without any advertising, I have been getting so many orders that it becomes difficult to cater to all of them. I need more manpower to double the production (it takes one month to complete one plant) but the unavailability of trained and dedicated manpower is a big constraint in expansion," Sagar added.

"Labour is an important variable in this business. As we have sufficient land at our existing site, we propose to start in-house training to meet labour shortage," said Vidya Sagar.