Jaipur Rugs is one of India's largest manufacturers of hand knotted rugs. Headquartered in Jaipur, India, the company's operations encompass more than branches, operating in six states and 600 villages in India with distribution to over 40 countries with its independent base of over 40,000 artisans. The company also has a large distribution base in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
Jaipur Rugs was founded by Nand Kishore Chaudhary in 1978. Nand Kishore had grown up seeing the plight of underpaid carpet weavers who often came from marginalized social backgrounds, and he started the business as a social venture to help them, with a loan of 5000 rupees that he took from his father. It was a small business to begin with, where Nand worked with 9 carpet weaving artisans on two looms in his hometown of Churu, Rajasthan. According to Nand Kishore, he based the business on the principles of dignity, compassion, empathy and love. Within three years, he had set up ten more looms in the regions of Ratangad, Sujangad, Laxmangarh and Jodhpur in Rajasthan, and without the presence of middlemen, the firm continued to grow and prosper.
1989 - 2000
In 1989, Nand Kishore moved to Gujarat to connect with the tribal artisans of the region. He continued to grow the network of weavers across the state and eventually set-up a small-scale industry in Valsad, Gujarat, to carry out the exports of that region. By 1992, there was a full-fledged network of artisans across the state’s rural areas, and by 1997, the network included more than 6,000 weavers from across the state. By 2000, the network had grown to 10,000 weavers.
2001 - 2012
After spending 13 years in Gujarat, Nand Kishore returned to Jaipur, Rajasthan, in 2003. He consolidated all the networks and brought them under the banner name of Jaipur Carpets. His eldest daughter, Asha, joined the business as well. Asha joined the offshoot Jaipur Rugs Inc. in the United States and headed the office from there. Soon after, Nand Kishore’s younger daughter Archana also joined the business as Director of Quality Assurance at Jaipur Living. In 2004, Jaipur Rugs Foundation was set-up under the Rajasthan Public Trust to engage, develop and sustain the artisan network.
In 2006, Jaipur Carpets was officially renamed as Jaipur Rugs (Pvt Ltd) and Nand Kishore’s younger daughter and son, Kavita and Yogesh, joined the company as well as heads of Design and Sales/Marketing respectively. The artisan network base had reached an astonishing 40,000, and in 2007, Jaipur Rugs marked the production milestone of one million square feet of hand-knotted carpets. In the following years, the company continued to grow and modernize rapidly. Showroom space for stores across India doubled, and hand-painted maps that weavers used were changed for Computer Aided Designs. Jaipur Rugs became recognized internationally as it was featured in The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid by CK Prahalad. Soon after in 2010, Nand Kishore was bestowed with the Ernst and Young: Entrepreneur of the Year Award. In 2012, He spoke at a TEDx event hosted by IIM - Ranchi. The same year, the Artisan Originals (Manchaha) initiative was launched. The Manchaha collection was a first of its kind initiative where weavers would design the rugs themselves. It went on to win multiple awards and gained recognition worldwide. It also paved the way for the Freedom Manchaha collection, which was started to provide dignified work to prison inmates in jails all over Rajasthan.
2013 - present
Jaipur Rugs has gone on to become a very recognizable brand worldwide. The year 2013 saw the launch of Jaipur Rugs’ first contemporary hand-knotted collection 'Chaos Theory'. It was launched at Domotex 2013, in Hannover, Germany. Jaipur Rugs won a special mention in the German Design Awards 2016. Jaipur Rugs further went on to win the award two more times, consecutively. In 2018, Nand Kishore’s youngest son joined Jaipur Rugs as well. As of now, Jaipur Rugs has a significant presence in 5 of the largest states of India. It is headquartered in Jaipur, and has showrooms in Delhi, Mumbai, and Bangalore. Jaipur Rugs also provides world-wide delivery of their products across 60 countries through their website.
The ecosystem of Jaipur Rugs comprises three branches that work with their network of artisans:
Jaipur Rugs Company is the parent company that conducts the businesses of the artisan network. It manages the production, export and sale of the rugs from weaver to customer. It is headquartered in Jaipur, Rajasthan.
Jaipur Rugs Foundation is the service arm of Jaipur Rugs Group. It was registered in 2004 under the Rajasthan Public Trust Act with the aim of integrating rural people into its value chain by training them to become home-based artisans and giving them a market for their products.
Jaipur Living is the branch of Jaipur Rugs that caters to business in Atlanta, United States. It is headed by Nand Kishore Chaudhary’s eldest daughter, Asha Chaudhary.
Literature
Jaipur Rugs has been the subject of several case studies focused on their corporate strategy to address and alleviate poverty.
C. K. Prahalad included a case study of Jaipur Rugs in his book The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid,[1] citing it as an example of a social business which helps in tackling world poverty. Prahalad describes the business model of Jaipur Rugs as unique because of its complex and robust supply chain.
Harvard University has studied Jaipur Rugs' supply chain with an eye toward offering improvements.[2]
In Take Me Home, published in 2014, Rashmi Bansal talked about N. K. Chaudhary and Jaipur Rugs, from its very inception to the scale it has achieved.[3]
In The Healing Organisation, published in 2019, Raj Sisodia and Michael J. Gelb covered Jaipur Rugs, describing NK’s vision of Jaipur Rugs "as an ashram."[4]
↑ Sisodia, Raj; Gelb, Michael J. (2019). The Healing Organisation:Awakening the Conscience of Business to Help Save the World. Harper Collins Leadership. p.61. ISBN9780814439821.
Jaipur, formerly Jeypore, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. As of 2011, the city had a population of 3.1 million, making it the tenth most populous city in the country. Jaipur is also known as the Pink City, due to the dominant colour scheme of its buildings. It is also known as the Paris of India, and Dr. C.V. Raman called it the Island of Glory. It is located 268 km from the national capital New Delhi. On 6 July 2019, UNESCO World Heritage Committee inscribed Jaipur the "Pink City of India" among its World Heritage Sites. Jaipur was founded in 1727 by the Kacchawa Rajput ruler Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amer, after whom the city is named. It was one of the earliest planned cities of modern India, designed by Vidyadhar Bhattacharya. During the British Colonial period, the city served as the capital of Jaipur State. After independence in 1947, Jaipur was made the capital of the newly formed state of Rajasthan.
A carpet is a textile floor covering typically consisting of an upper layer of pile attached to a backing. The pile was traditionally made from wool, but since the 20th century, synthetic fibers such as polypropylene, nylon or polyester are often used, as these fibers are less expensive than wool. The pile usually consists of twisted tufts that are typically heat-treated to maintain their structure. The term carpet is often used in a similar context to the term rug, but rugs are typically considered to be smaller than a room and not attached to the floor.
A Persian carpet or Persian rug, also known as Iranian carpet, is a heavy textile made for a wide variety of utilitarian and symbolic purposes and produced in Iran, for home use, local sale, and export. Carpet weaving is an essential part of Persian culture and Iranian art. Within the group of Oriental rugs produced by the countries of the "rug belt", the Persian carpet stands out by the variety and elaborateness of its manifold designs.
Sikar is a city located midway between Agra and Churu on the National Highway 52 in the state of Rajasthan in India. It is a part of the Shekhawati region.
Govardhan Asrani, popularly known simply as Asrani, is an Indian actor and director whose Bollywood career has spanned five decades. He has acted in over 350 Hindi films. Asrani has played the lead hero, character roles, comedic roles and supporting roles. He is best known for his role in Sholay as a jailer and characters he played in 25 films with Rajesh Khanna in lead role between 1972 to 1991.
An oriental rug is a heavy textile made for a wide variety of utilitarian and symbolic purposes and produced in "Oriental countries" for home use, local sale, and export.
Churu district is a district of the Indian state of Rajasthan in northern India. It was founded by Banirot Rajputs. Some believe it was a village of jats known as kalera ka bas. Thakur Kushal Singh constructed the Churu fort in 1649 and during the battle of 1871 the area came under dominance of Bikaner. The town of Churu is the administrative headquarters of the district.
Chaudhary is one variant spelling of Chaudry, Chaudhury, Chaudhuri, Choudhury, Chowdhury a common surname in the Indian subcontinent.
Rajasthan is a mineral-rich state and has a diversified economy having agriculture, mining and tourism as its main engines of growth. The state mines produce gold, silver, sandstone, limestone, marble, rock phosphate, copper and lignite. It is the second-largest producer of cement and contributes one tenth of the salt produced in India.
Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation (RSRTC) is a public transport company which provides bus services in the Indian state Rajasthan. It is headquartered in Jaipur, Rajasthan. The corporation was established by Government of Rajasthan on 1 October 1964 under the Road Transport Act 1950. RSRTC operates ordinary, express and deluxe services. It has 4500 buses in its fleet, 52 depots across Rajasthan and 3 depots outside the state i.e. Indore, Ahmedabad and Delhi. Out of total fleet 4154 buses are on road. As of the 2018-19 reports there are around 2230 routes covered which amount to 5437.74 lakh km per year. It carries around 9 lakh passengers per day to their destinations within and outside the state. RSRTC operates services in Rajasthan and adjoining states of Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Jammu Kashmir and Chandigarh. Ticket reservation is available at all bus stations free of charge. Online ticket facility is available for Air conditioned, Deluxe, Semi-deluxe and express buses through Kiosks in Rajasthan as well as through RSRTC mobile application.
Nangal Choudhary is a town and tehsil in District Mahendragarh at Narnaul in India. It holds the crown of being the "First Cyber Village of Haryana". A very famous personality, Baba Ramdev, belongs to the village which is a part of this region.
The people of Rajasthan called the Rajasthani people or Rajasthanis are an Indian ethnic group native to Rajasthan, a state in Northern India. Their language, Rajasthani, is a part of the western group of Indo-Aryan languages.
Nand Kishore Chaudhary is an Indian social entrepreneur. He currently serves as the Chairman and Managing Director of the social enterprise Jaipur Rugs, which he founded in 1978.
The Dilmaghani family, the oldest existing manufacturers of hand knotted carpets and oriental rugs, can be traced back to the 1850s Qajar Dynasty, Persia. In an industry which largely produces untitled items often identifiable only by experts, the history and lineage of any name relating to specific types of rugs for so many decades is unusual. Through the 1960s, the Dilmaghani family was still designing, manufacturing and importing Persian carpets from Iran to the United States. Dilmaghani is seen as an important connection of 19th and 20th century Persian rug and carpet production in and around the cities of Tabriz and Kermān. Dilmaghani remains among the best known names of branded 19th, 20th and 21st century hand knotted carpets.
Mahesh Raj Soni was an Indian Master Craftsman specialising in the traditional art of Thewa, a Rajasthani jewellery making tradition using glass and gold leaves and is one of the surviving exponents of the art form which has roots in Pratapgarh, Rajasthan. He is a member of Rajasthan Thewa Kala Sansthan and has featured in the Limca Book of World Records in its 2011 edition. Soni, who is a cancer survivor, was honoured by the Government of India in 2015 with Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award.
Anand Pal was an Indian gangster mainly active in the cities of Rajasthan.
Kashmiri handicrafts is a traditional art of Kashmiri people and artisans who make, craft, and decorate objects by hand. Srinagar, Ganderbal, and Budgam are the main districts in central Kashmir which are making handicrafts products since ages. The rest of its districts, including Srinagar, Ganderbal, and Budgam are best known for its cultural heritage which extends handicraft industry in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India.
Qaleen is a type of hand knotted piled carpet. The term is used throughout Turkey, Iran and Central Asia, and making qaleens is currently practised as a handicraft in Turkey and Iran. Artisans may take at least two months to make one qaleen. The craft was learned from Persians by artisans of Kashmir in Indian subcontinent. These knotted pile carpets were blend of Persian and Indian craftsmanship. ''Qaleens'' or ''Ghalichas'' were made in Kashmir region of India and Pakistan.
Mughal carpets were the handwoven floor coverings used in the Mughal Empire in their courts. Mughal carpets and rugs have their roots in India since the 16th and 17th centuries. Mughal carpets were a blend of Persian and Indian artistry uniquely designed with scenic landscapes, floral, and animal patterns. Kashmir was producing the finest wool and silk carpets and rugs, including prayer rugs. Sometimes the knot density in these rugs was so fine and tight as 300 knots per square centimeter.
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