Our Correspondent
Kohima, Jan. 17 (EMN): A couple — Kaustav Ghosh and Laxmi Sorte – reached Kohima on Monday after covering a distance of about 10,000 km.
The husband-wife duo began ‘The Great Indian Travel’, a 101-day road trip campaign to 28 Indian states and five Union Territories, with an aim to empower people from all backgrounds and establish a network for them to promote and grow their businesses.
They started their road trip from Navi Mumbai on December 1 last year.
“The cause of our campaign is to support the small businesses and make their brands and efforts recognised. We are here to support and strengthen the local economy,” said 31-year-old Laxmi Sorte, Co-founder of ‘The Great Indian Travel’ and wife of her travelling partner Kaustav Ghosh.
She said that they would cover more than 15,000 km in total by the time the trip ends on March 11, 2022. She further informed that their next destination, after Nagaland, is Arunachal Pradesh.
Founder of The Great Indian Travel, Kaustav Ghosh said that they want to promote local business wherever they go. During their journey since December 1, they were said to be staying in homestays, eat local food and buy products from the locals.
He informed that their campaign is being supported by #ISupportYourBusiness, a private company based in Navi Mumbai. It is a community platform through which they are trying to form a small local businesses, one such community of which is active in Navi Mumbai, he informed.
Similarly, they are trying to emulate the same model across the country. Along their trip, they are trying to meet with different stakeholders and sought their help to build communities of micro businesses, it was informed.
Nagaland is the 17th state they have travelled to as part of the campaign. It was informed that the couple had interacted with more than 500 persons and suggested them to build communities.
The entire backing, support, training and portal are being developed for registered members. It envisages helping business owners in pathways like better marketing strategies, listing platforms, online media exposure, etc., and to uplift their business and provide a platform where they can explore various business opportunities, said Ghosh.
Currently, the company have 35 registered members from different business categories and they did businesses worth INR 10 to 12 lakh within the community during the last two and half months, he claimed.
