Team Druk Rimdo Service, an online service for rituals, won the best business idea at Thimphu Global Women Start-up Weekend yesterday. Twenty women from diverse backgrounds took part in the event.
Ngawang Choden is the brain behind Druk Rimdo Service. She owns a cafe in Punakha. The business idea is about making easier access to monks and nuns via online app to perform rituals at home. The app has the option of different rituals and the number of monks required along with the price. The app, according to Ngawang is like any other online shopping app.
“Basically how we came up with this idea is, you know Bhutan is a religious country and religion is part of the culture, it’s a root of culture. So, whether you are religious or not you have to conduct all this, you have to perform all the rituals, so we must perform that. So the demand is really high for the monks and nuns and the supply is also high but it’s just that it’s not organized properly,” said Ngawang Choden, a participant, Druk Rimdo Service.
The three-day event is to empower women in terms of financial independence.
“We talk about women empowerment but without the financial independence we cannot talk about the women empowerment. That’s why through this event we are moving one step towards achieving the economic empowerment for women. The other objective is really to give experiential platform to all women from all walks of life so that they actually understand where they stand in the entrepreneurship journey and also to experience the life of the start-up, the highest, the lowest, the precious and they have experienced everything,” said Deepika Rai, the Organizer of Start-up Weekend for Women.
She said, coinciding with International Women’s day, one of the members from the team Druk Rimdo Services will represent Bhutan in Singapore at a global summit in March next year. 67 cities around the world will be participating in the event.
Pema Seldon Tshering
