Category: India

Culture

#NICEStories: Adira Thoughtful and Sustainable Gifting

Corporate gifting rises to a whole new level with Adira Thoughtful Gifting! If you are a company looking to gift your employees more thoughtfully, then Adira is your go-to place. Adira – Thoughtful Gifting was created by Kadambari Misra, nearly 2 years ago. She started Adira with a motive to put more thought and care into corporate gifting. During her job in the corporate world, she noticed constant negligence in the gifts people like her received from the company. She believes gifting should be based on aesthetics, reusability and thoughtfulness. Catch our conversation with Kadambari as she recounts the inception of her brand and highlights the representation of India’s heritage in her cultural enterprise. 

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Culture

#NICEStories: Paytaan – Revamping the Indian Leather Footwear Industry

Paytaan is a cultural enterprise that focuses on the manufacture and trade of leather footwear like Kolhapuri chappal. 

Kolhapuri chappals date back to over 800 years ago worn mainly by the royal lineage- a matter of honor. This elevates the importance of this uniquely crafted product in the cultural history of India. Paytaan is more than just chappals – they are focused on building a better ecosystem for this industry while creating an international brand for Indian craftsmanship.

Let’s take a deep dive into the roots of Paytaan with the founder, Anurag Kokitkar.

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Business

#NICEStories: Shoegaro Platform for promoting and selling Indian Handmade Footwear

What’s better than handcrafted footwear that’s affordable and convenient? Shoegaro is a cultural enterprise acting as a platform for artisans to sell handmade footwear. So far, almost 250 artisan families have been positively impacted through Shoegaro. It aims to uphold the Indian art of shoemaking, while making it affordable for customers as well as profitable for the artisans involved. Follow our conversation with Ankit, as he talks about the inception of Shoegaro, the state of artisans in this industry and the challenges that came along while setting up this private enterprise.

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Culture

Different Funding Sources for Entrepreneurs

The pitch to secure the right amount of funding is daunting for any entrepreneur. Furthermore, securing the right method of funding is an important factor as well.

Read on to gain insights into equity, loans, grants and practices to follow to raise capital.

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Enterprise

#NICEStories – Zishta: Bringing Traditional Indian Cookware and Crafts Back into your Homes

Ever seen your grandmother’s initials etched on your mother’s utensils? India has always carried forward the practice of passing down utensils and serveware generationally. Zishta was started by Meera Ramakrishnan, Archish Mathe Madhavan and Varishta Sampath with a vision to revive and leverage traditional wisdom to make homes more environment friendly and holistic.

Currently serving over 22 countries, Zishta brings to your homes heritage crafts and cookware from their place of origin. Follow Meera’s journey as she highlights the benefits of these age-old practices, and what it takes to make a business sustainable.

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Business

#NICEStories: How Plume Jewelry is Redefining Trends in Heritage Jewelry

Wanted your jewelry to speak your mind? Featuring Plume Jewelry, a house of handcrafted fine jewelry. Rupali Gupta and Rakshit Jargad founded Plume with the vision of redefining trends in fine silver jewelry through creative reinterpretation of heritage crafts and design. They create ethno-contemporary designs executed with heritage craftsmanship.
By converting customers’ designs into final pieces with their in-house expertise, Rupali and Rakshit focus on delighting and winning customers. Read on to find out how they are striving to carve a niche in the affordable luxury jewelry space with Plume.

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Business

#NICEStories – Building Blocks for Indian Heritage Themed Toys, Gifts and Souvenirs at Indic Bricks

Indic Bricks, is a brand of Ekarik, founded by Meghna Bhutoria with the aim of bringing Indian culture to a child’s toy box. A favorite amongst both adults and children, Indic Bricks has introduced Indian heritage-themed building blocks collections, consisting sets of temples, deities, yoga asanas and more.

Read on to find out how Indic Bricks is bringing heritage home in form of toys, gifts, and souvenirs, block by block.

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NICE Aarohana

#NICEStories – MeMeraki: Online Masterclasses with Artisans to Revive Indian Traditional Arts and Crafts

MeMeraki is a ‘Culture-tech’ platform enabling traditional rural artisans to be digital creators for the first time in the creator economy with Content (online art & craft masterclasses, live classes) and commerce (art kits, artworks marketplace).
Initially founded by Yosha Gupta as a passion project to bring folk arts to the limelight, MeMeraki has evolved from selling exquisite handpainted bags to a treasury of masterclasses hosted by artisans from all over

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Enterprise

#NICEStories – Reimagining Saree Fashion at Six Yards Plus, a Sustainable and Versatile Saree Brand

Six Yards Plus is a sustainable and versatile saree brand that is changing the way women of today perceive, consume and experience sarees. Their sarees encompass numerous motifs and draping styles that cater to every kind of woman. This cultural enterprise brings hand-made and environmentally friendly sarees from traditional styles like Kalamkari, Induri and Maheshwari to signature styles that are in-house designed. 

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India

#NICEStories – How Desi Fashion Brand Shobitam is Growing 300% Annually Across the Globe

#NICEStories: Founded by two women entrepreneurs, Aparna and Ambika Thyagarajan, in 2019, Shobitam is a desi fashion cultural enterprise. After a successful pilot launch on Etsy, they are growing 300% annually across the globe. They design their collections by working with handloom clusters across India.
Their collection caters to a wide demographic, ranging from a variety of sarees to jackets, stoles, and jewelry.
Follow our conversation with founder Aparna Thyagarajan.

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