Kshitiz Baral is an entrepreneur with a wide range of ventures building a regenerative future. We came together to co-create a concept map of all his activities and we found a beautiful dynamic that can easily be strengthened by more projects to increase impact.

Kshitiz is running Pokhara Investment and under that umbrella he connects investment and consulting as part of Yunus Social Business. With this in mind he opened Pokhara co-working & Co-living space where he can give innovative teams the space to collaborate and connect. The projects born in this space easily find support through the consulting and investment. The space also welcomes digital nomads and remote workers who chose Pokhara as a base to work from and to explore. Kshitiz is passionate about expanding this energy and does this through strategic partnerships with hotels and other venues where people can find a workspace.

One of these projects is Farm Bukeni in a remote village in the mountains. This farm is a laboratory for trying out new crops and concepts but most importantly, Kshitiz invites remote workers and the teams that use the coworking to come to the farm to connect. Through this connection the village is introduced to the newest thinking and innovation that offers the youth in remote mountain villages opportunities to stay while improving the quality of life. Kshitiz is now expanding this through connecting with more lodges and homestays.

This connected dynamic gives birth to exciting projects like Alovu Wears, which uses allo – a plant fibre found throughout the region – to make clothing. The brand is fully sustainable and is committed to empowering women in the rural villages. We will make sure to set up an interview with Ravi Bhandari who is behind this brand to explore their dynamics.

Looking at the concept-map we created and seeing the connections it was easy to spot how challenges and opportunities are emerging together. The challenge is to connect the products with the market. Nepal is dominated by products from india that are much cheaper than local products although they do not have the same quality and are not ecological because of chemical treatment. The current energy crisis turns out to be an opportunity as it has a positive effect on this; products from India are becoming more expensive that is actually helping the local producers. The slow travel of professionals is seen as a massive opportunity to connect skills and knowledge to remote areas. Here we identified a natural strategic collaboration with Regenerative Nomads of Shruti Umesh Chakke who will be interviewed in the near future to see how the dynamics of the two ecosystems can easily be connected without generating too much work.

This is Cobana’s mission: blending global and local voices towards a regenerative future.

Watch this space for more interviews and blending.