Commercial units

Coffee Ideas, a unit that was established in 2008 with the vision to spread knowledge and foster a community around Indian specialty coffee, won a number of awards at the 2025 Global Coffee Awards Origin Competition held in Houston, Texas in October.

“Wishing to move forward in collaboration towards the building of the city and the right administering of Auroville,” the AVFO on 9 May issued a call for self-nomination in key areas of the Auroville administration, eg a group, service, unit or trust.

The GB-FAMC informed the community that it has begun “a renewed effort to grow and strengthen Auroville’s economy, building on the groundwork laid in recent years around compliance, transparency and financial structure”.

On 21 March, the Secretary of the Auroville Foundation called all trustees, executives, managers and accountants of all Auroville units for an urgent meeting at the Sri Aurobindo Auditorium to hear about Income Tax (IT) and General Service Tax (GST) issues.

Claude and Abha have been living in Auroville since 1974 and 1978 respectively. For the last 45 years, Abha has been running the handicraft unit Shradhanjali while Claude has become a scholar who has authored several books and articles on Tibet, China, India and on Indo-French relations.

Torkil Dantzer joined Auroville in 2010. In 2011 he created the woodworking unit Prakrit after Cyclone Thane to create value from the fallen trees.

Views of the Governing Board on the Auroville economy as mentioned in the minutes of the 57th Governing Board Meeting held in December 2021.

On April 1st, 2024, the Auroville Boutique in Pondicherry closed its operations. More than 50 years ago – the exact date is lost in history – it was started by the visionary André Tardeil who felt that an Auroville outlet cum information office in Pondicherry was necessary.

On 29th February, Svaram inaugurated its new Sound Garden at the allocated 2-acre site for its projected campus in the Industrial Zone of Auroville, in the presence of Special Guests of Honour, Thiru R.N.

At the beginning of November 2022, the AVFO’s ‘FAMC’ sent an email to several Activity managers whose annual turnover does not exceed 2 lakhs.

Massimo, a master cheese maker from Valle d’Aosta with decades of experience gathered in this art from across Italy, moved to Auroville with his partner Monica and three children in 2008.

Antonello comes from Northern Italy and moved to Auroville in 2014, where he now lives with his partner and children. He runs ‘Gastronomica’, an Italian take away gourmet store - sometimes affectionately referred to as the Italian Pavilion - that has gained popularity within and outside of Auroville, thanks to its handmade pasta, Italian takeaway dishes, and imported Italian culinary products.

Nahar Emet, now 22, was nine years old when he came to Auroville with his family. He attended Deepanam, TLC, and Last School, and then worked as CRIPA’s light and sound designer before joining the Youth Centre team.

Didier Weiss joined Auroville in 1994 and started a few years later Sound Wizard, an Auroville unit that specialises in turnkey design of high-end acoustics and audiovisual environments such as music studios, auditoria, and elite home cinema theaters.

On March 26th, the Auroville Press in Aspiration community celebrated its 40th anniversary. Claude Arpi, Christine Devin, Luisa Meneghetti and Jayalakshmi look back at a challenging past and forward to an uncertain future.

In January and February, Auroville’s Budget Coordination Committee (BCC) conducted a series of public meetings with the community. One purpose was to clarify the budgetary allocations; another, to help the BCC understand to what extent those allocations serve the needs of the community.

While Tamil Nadu is in a second lockdown, Auroville entrepreneurs reflect on how they handled the first lockdown.

How does Auroville deal with ageing? Are there community retirement plans? Are Auroville units planning for succession? Auroville Today talked to two unit executives – one who is (slightly) stepping back, the other who is stepping forward – and lifts the veil on a Silver Fund which is being planned for the older members of the community.

Marc’s Coffee responds to the challenges of a pandemic.

After touring Pablo Picasso’s museum in Barcelona, we could not resist buying a print of his masterly sketch of Don Quixote and his companion Sancho Panza, the characters from Miquel de Cervantes’ novel about the adventures of Don Quixote.

Manuel Thomas is a senior Chartered Accountant who works with Auroville groups and commercial units in various consultative capacities. He is also co-author with Henk Thomas of a history of Auroville’s economy, Economics for People and Earth: The Auroville Case 1968-2008.

Auroville’s Funds and Assets Management Committee (FAMC) held two general meetings in November in an effort to come closer to the community.

It’s generally Auroville’s attractive products or tangible outputs that have gained the most attention for the community’s units and services over the years.

We are fond of quoting Mother when she writes that Auroville will be a place for making experiments. But how easy is it to innovate in the Auroville of today?

We are Julian, Jonas and Anadi, three Auroville youths that run Tree Care, an arboriculture business. In case you are wondering what arboriculture is, let us tell you: arboriculture is the synthesis of tree science (biology), physics, chemistry, physical coordination, strength, heavy machinery, and of course some yoga to stay calm and focused throughout technical and dangerous procedures, or as Google would define it: the cultivation of trees and shrubs.

Economic growth cannot be the only raison d’être of our economy.

Sunlit Future, a unit offering solar technology expertise and Mason & Co, a unit producing high quality chocolate products, are exploring the possibilities of entering into partnership with non-Auroville organizations.

Sunlit Future, a unit offering solar technology expertise and Mason & Co, a unit producing high quality chocolate products, are exploring the possibilities of entering into partnership with non-Auroville organizations.

On the evening of 8th November, the Government of India announced that Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes would no longer be legal tender from midnight.

Recently, a group of Aurovilians concerned about the direction of our economy discussed alternatives. Anandi is part of the management team of Pour Tous Distribution Centre, Jocelyn is on the Santé team, Nicole is a member of the BCC and management of the Visitors Center, Isha coordinates the Auroville Board of Services, and Manohar is the webmaster of the Auroville website.

The Funds and Assets Management Committee (FAMC) has decided that the word “Auroville” should not be used at the beginning of the name of a unit, activity, project, or course unless it is a unique activity supposed to represent Auroville officially.

“After we presented in October 2013 our book Economics for People and Earth – The Auroville Case 1968-2008, we left Auroville with a modest hope that its economy would improve.

“When I moved here there wasn’t any chocolate I could eat. All the bars were non-organic, full vegetable fats, sugar, and milk, and with only a minimum of cacao,” says Jane Mason, who joined Auroville four years ago.

Auroville.com’s website appears a tad conservative for an e-tailer (or e-commerce) unit. “Expect a lot of changes,” says Stephan. “In a few months, it will be all different!”

In 1982, in a small hut in Auromodèle community, a new garment unit was born, Auromodèle, employing three tailors and two helpers. In later years it was renamed Auromode Atelier and in 1985 moved to Auroshilpam in Auroville’s Industrial Zone.

Watching YouTube is often vexing. Downloading is slow, the wheel appears time and again and much fun fades in the waiting. Auroville’s telephone-based internet of 700-odd lines is limited in capacity and unsuitable for high speed internet access.

One of the most interesting initiatives to emerge out of the Auroville Retreat was the Integral Entrepreneurship Lab (IEL). Here some of the core team talk about its objectives and what they have been working on so far.

“Artisans cum aspirant artists,” says Luisa tentatively. “Players with paper,” suggests Hervé. They laugh, attempting to label the Aurovilians working at Auroville Papers – Christine, Jean-Jacques, Florent, Luisa and Hervé.

On 17th December, Prema (Adelina Intanno) passed away. She was 68 years old and had been fighting a terminal ailment for two years. Prema, who was born in Argentina, came to Auroville in 1979.

The undisputed master of Auroville woodworking is Japanese Aurovilian Kenji Matsumoto. But it was by chance, he says, that woodworking became his profession.

Nicole, who has been part of the management team for the past 15 years talks about the function and challenges of running the Auroville Visitors’ Center.

There are three potteries in Auroville. The Aspiration Pottery is run by Michel. Yanne interviewed him recently about his work.

Judith came to Auroville in 1971. After helping with the Matrimandir excavations, she moved to Kottakarai, where she did afforestation and orchard work – and began a family.