Heartfulness Institute and PayPal unveil Centre of Excellence to Empower Rural Entrepreneurs

2025-05-24 12:58:00 News & Society

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Hyderabad, 5th May 2025: Shri Nitin Gadkari, Hon’ble Minister of Road Transport and Highways inaugurated a Biochar Centre of Excellence promoting Rural Entrepreneurship at Kanha Shanti Vanam – the headquarters of Heartfulness Institute, which houses the largest meditation centre in the world, in the outskirts of Hyderabad.

The Biochar Centre of Excellence promoting Rural Entrepreneurship, an initiative by Heartfulness Institute and PayPal has been inaugurated by Shri Nitin Gadkari – Hon’ble Minister for Road Transport and Highways in the gracious presence of Shri Kamesh Patel (Daaji) — President Founder & Guide of Heartfulness Institute along with Shri Nath Parameshwaran, Senior Director at PayPal.

The Centre has been established to provide skill development, and capacity building for rural entrepreneurs in villages for biochar. The initiative aims to encourage women and youth entrepreneurs to set up biochar units, produce biochar, and distribute it to farmers as part of a rural business model. The Centre of Excellence will also offer an end-to-end experience of how biochar is produced, processed, and applied to the soil, enabling participants to visually study and understand its impact on crops, soil, and forests.

Shri Nitin Gadkari – Hon’ble Minister for Road Transport and Highways said, “Small businesses, rural entrepreneurs and farmers form the backbone of India’s economy. This unique initiative brings entrepreneurs and farmers together to equip them with modern agricultural technologies and know-how on farming. We want our farmer community to have superior yield, better income, make agriculture dependable and provide economic opportunities for small rural entrepreneurs in the villages. With the Biochar Centre of Excellence and promoting Rural Entrepreneurship at Heartfulness, we are sure to make India more self-reliant in agriculture. This is a wonderful initiative, and we hope that rural entrepreneurs and farmers will benefit from this initiative.”

“We must be wise in how we produce crops—not only by adopting modern techniques but also by being sensitive to soil health and nutrition. A Centre of Excellence like this will train rural entrepreneurs, farmers, and agriculturists in sustainable farming, helping them adopt biochar as an effective carbon-sequestering agent for better plant survival rates and afforestation. Our vision is to establish a biochar unit in every village in the country for the benefit of all,” added Shri Kamlesh Patel (Daaji) – Founder & Global Guide of Heartfulness Institute.

Shri Nath Parameshwaran from PayPal said, “Helping small businesses and entrepreneurs thrive is a key priority for PayPal globally and in India. We are delighted to partner with Heartfulness Institute in this unique initiative, which aligns with the Skill India vision of Hon. Prime Minister Modiji. The Centre of Excellence for Rural Entrepreneurship aims to provide economic and upskilling opportunities for rural entrepreneurs, boost farmer incomes, and protect the environment with use of bio-char.”

About biochar: The benefits of biochar, which is 100% organic, include permanently improving soil fertility, increasing crop yields by 10-30%, boosting farmers' incomes, reducing water requirements for crops, and enhancing the survival rate of saplings in afforestation. Biochar has been extensively used to rejuvenate barren lands at Kanha Shanti Vanam and in afforestation projects, transforming these spaces into green landscapes and dense forests. Additionally, biochar production and its sequestration in soil generate high-value carbon credits, which are used to subsidize biochar for farmers.

According to statistics, out of the 600 million tons of farm residue produced in India each year, 160 million tons are burned. When this farm residue is converted to Biochar and applied to soil, it remains inert for thousands of years, restoring microbial life. In farmer trials with 144 cotton farmers across Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, cotton yield increased by 17% to 32% in the first year. Improved plant resistance to diseases and greater resilience to climate change have also been observed.

About Heartfulness: Heartfulness offers a simple set of meditative practices and lifestyle changes, first developed at the turn of the twentieth century and formalized into teaching through the Shri Ram Chandra Mission in 1945 in India with a goal to bring peace, happiness, and wisdom to one heart at a time. These practices are a modern form of Yoga designed to support contentment, inner calm, and stillness, compassion, courage, and clarity of thought, as the first step towards a purposeful life. They are simple and easily adopted and are appropriate for people from all walks of life, cultures, religious beliefs, and economic situations, who are over the age of fifteen. Ongoing training in Heartfulness practices continues at thousands of schools and colleges, and over 100,000 professionals are meditating in corporations, non-governmental, and government bodies worldwide. More than 5,000 Heartfulness Centers are supported by many thousands of certified volunteer trainers and millions of practitioners in 160 countries.

About ‘Forests by Heartfulness’ (FBH): It is an initiative to plant at least 30 million native and endemic trees across India by 2030 under the guidance of a team of agro-forestry, forestry and climate experts. Forests by Heartfulness has also developed its own propriety technology, processes and monitoring mechanisms that promote ‘back to nature’ plantation methodology for high density, optimal and sustainable growth. Every year, between October and May (which is the non-plantation season), the nurseries raise plant species and trees, the saplings of which are carefully selected. Mass plantation of the saplings occur in monsoons and late winter by the Heartfulness volunteers, NGOs, school children, farmers, and the general public. The ongoing efforts in last 5 years transformed Kanha from a barren landscape to a thriving ecosystem. It is fast becoming a model for best practices in nurturing India’s mega-biodiversity, saving endangered and rare species, creating medicinal gardens, and a sanctuary for wild birds and reptiles.