When Ranjith Mukundan quit his job at Wipro in 2011 after 15 years, farming wasn't on his mind. Bengaluru-born Mukundan and his four co-founders were exploring the Internet of Things space, the idea of connecting ordinary objects to send and receive data. They considered telemedicine, but decided against it since many MNCs were in the business.

That's when one of the founders pointed to the problems in dairy management, including that milk stored in regular containers become non-consumable after a few hours. His uncle was an organic dairy farmer in Tiptur, a town 150km north west of Bengaluru, and had trouble managing his cattle and the supply chain. They liked the idea so Mukundan, now 41, and the team spent the next eight months at the dairy farm and also visited farms in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Odisha. Their company, Stellapps, used their learnings to develop automated dairy solutions, and now works with milk cooperative societies such as Aavin, Milma and Tirumala. Its products are in 250 farms and are used by three lakh dairy farmers.

Read the full article in The Economic Times