NextGen aiming to make business more eco-friendly

According to reports, at an age when most people are still wondering about what to do with their lives, college graduates Abhishek Humbad and Richa Bajpai were out to show the world that being eco-friendly can also mean good business. Incubated in IIM-Bangalore and BITS Pilani, their clean tech start-up NextGen, launched in 2009, developed a reactor to convert more than 900 different types of organic waste into natural gas than can be used for commercial purposes.

Statistics speak volumes on the need for this venture’s existence. According to consulting firm AT Kearney, about 3.5 billion litres of diesel is consumed in India every year by telecom tower companies alone at a cost of about Rs 8,500 crore. Another 300 thousand towers are expected to be set up in the next five years which could raise diesel consumption to almost seven billion litres a year.

Hoping to increase…