Those eyes sparkle with confidence and a smile that feels welcoming, we will never fail to notice even in a crowd. But there is much more to this charm than one can witness at a glance. There is generosity and love for nature in all her deeds! An entrepreneur, mother of a Two-year-old, a Gold Medalist from Calcutta University with a first class first, nature lover, and yoga teacher, Malabika Chatterjee is marching forward with the aim of making the world a better place. She has been pushing fear out of the window, taking risks, and facing life head-on. With the manifestation of balance between nature and humanity, a society where people are healthy, and a country where farmers flourish, Malabika is striving to contribute her best part. With immense fortitude and drive to create holistic ventures, she founded NaturaYuva AG and Maheshwar Yoga. Recognizing Malabika as an inspiring Indian leader in the European business world, we present an exclusive interview with her.

Below are the highlights of the interview:

Give Us A Brief Overview Of Your Brainchild. Highlight Itscore Objectives.

My first venture is Maheshwar Yoga, established in 2016 in Basel, Switzerland; dedicated in the name of my great grandfather and first homoeopathy icon in India, Mahesh Bhattacharyya, also a renowned philanthropist and a businessman who set up Mahesh Laboratories in 1872. It is a boutique Yoga studio offering pure Hatha yoga classes that build up the innate potentialities to the fullest. The core objective is to highlight the simplicity of learning and practicing of Yoga and its philosophy whilst keeping at bay all the myth and fear about Yoga. The studio caters to age groups ranging from children to senior people, providing them with a renewed sense of enthusiasm towards a healthy way of life.

Subsequently (my husband) Arko and I launched NaturaYuva AG in 2018 again in Basel, Switzerland to transform the conservation of medicinal and aromatic plants and small-holder agroforestry farming and vertically integrate them in downstream processing to generate niche high-quality traceable organic sustainable natural ingredients: essential oils, powders, or extracts. NaturaYuva aims to conserve >3500 medicinal and aromatic plants and directly support at least 100´000 small holder farmers around the globe in the next 10-15 years.

What Motivated You To Pursue Holistic Wellness Through Homeopathy, Yoga, And Sustainable Business?

In all the three business avenues, the underlying values are the same, that is universal health and wellness; to not only care about ourselves as human beings but also have the empathy to contribute to all sections of society, help our biodiversity including, plants, birds and animals, microorganisms, as there are core interrelationships between each other.

Throw Some Light On Your Expertise As A Business Leader.

My expertise as a business leader lies in prioritizing quality attributes over quantity, contributing meaningfully towards farmers and our ecosystem, and taking care of the underprivileged, especially women workers at the farm gate level, which actually leads to community development and is a key enabler to business success.

The power to do good for others always comes back to oneself, prioritizing values before hardships as learned from my Great Grandfather Mahesh Bhattacharya. In 1904, he first published his book on CSR, social responsibility for large and small businesses.

What Have Been The Most Significant Milestones That You Have Achieved So Far?

Firstly, NaturaYuva completes four years this June 2022. In this rewarding journey, we received the EIT (European Institute of Technology) recognition as top two startups in Switzerland by the EIT food accelerator network in 2020. We are developing partnerships with several global unilateral organizations in the field of agronomy and social development.

"It is my primary role to implement our values of sustainability and women empowerment at the farm gate level as women constitute a total of 80 percent of the farm gate workforce"

Alongside, we have set up a unique agroforestry research and development station in Sevaiyoor, India benefiting 25000 farmers in the ecosystem. Our driving force is enabling sustainable small holding farmer communities that make up 85 percent of global numbers. The power of following the values-self -belief, focus, grit, determination, and being true to the purpose with perseverance will overcome all challenges. We had the opportunity to attend World Economic Forum, Davos in 2019, 2020 to represent and share our belief and values with global leaders Apart from this, in 2022 Maheshwar Yoga will complete a 5-year journey.

We have been partnering with The Embassy of India, Berne, celebrating the International Day of Yoga in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. I got an opportunity to teach across Switzerland and Liechtenstein covering interested first timers atRietberg Museum, Bad Ragaz, young children atInternational School Bern, Davos, and the honor and privilege that they support the Maheshwar Yoga IDY event in Basel.

It was an honor to receive an award from the Ambassador of India to Switzerland Hon. Sibi George and Member of Swiss Parliament Nik Gugger for receiving the first prize in Yoga Photoshoot competition in Switzerland and Liechtenstein 2018; certificate of achievement for outstanding performance on the occasion of 4th International Day of Yoga conducted by the Embassy of India, Berne.

My husband and I met the President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind; at the Embassy of India, Berne. I was also featured in 'GipfelZeitung', a Davos local magazine for teaching yoga to the Davos community

What would your advice be to young women and girls aspiring to become business leaders? The self-belief that you can be successful to pursue your dreams, to find that one purpose in your life, dream big and fight all odds to make the dream a reality.

In addition, one needs to stick to the purpose with full focus, perseverance, and keep up the determination, grit, and killer instinct to work day in and day out to achieve what one desires. And not to forget that empathy for others goes quite a long way, as the good one puts in the world, also comes back.

Malabika Chatterjee, Vice-Chairman, Naturayuva AG, Switzerland Director, Naturayuva India Founder & Teacher, Maheshwar Yoga, Baselswitzerland

Malabika completed BA in Education(Hon) from Loreto College, with a first class first, Gold Medalist under Calcutta University. She further pursued MA in Drama and Theatre Education under University of Warwick, UK- an Ivy League University. Also, did her Training Diploma from Bikram College of Yoga, Los Angeles.