Sanjay Guhathakurta

rangamaati handicrafts & handloom

LAUNCH PLAN

The Problem We Want to Tackle:• Revival of Languishing HandiCrafts & Handloom of Bengal,INDIA .

• Facilitating livelihood for rural artisans with a holistic approach, which includes capacity building and sustainable development concepts.

• Health and Proper Sanitation of the Artisan & their family.

• Basic Education and Market know how to avoid “MiddleMan “ interference and exploitation.

The Solution We Came Up WithSales of handicrafts & handlooms ensures preservation at first place and continuation of the perishing Artwork at the second place and that too without affecting their nativity.

Revival of Languishing Craft & Facilitating market through eCommerce & Retail Sale.

We plan Construction of Work shed for poor & needy artisan of Bankura Birbhum District for all weather Production of handloom weaving,Kantha Stitching and Dokra Artwork thus ensuring year round production .

Appropriate transfer of Skill and Intangible Culture through Workshops and Training of Young Artisans by the Elder Artisans

We are promoting large domain of artisans and their artwork, across West Bengal, India to the global audience through our social network presence. Our online collection of handicrafts has increased with growing time from teracotta , dokra, Batik Printing to Kantha stitch and have been appreciated by International and National Buyers for genuine & authentic Artwork and Skill involvement.

Why This Solution is Uniquerangamaati.com is the online shopping portal of rangamaati handicrafts Pvt Ltd, an organization dedicated towards promoting and empowering rural craftsmen of Bengal by providing an ecommerce platform for their Handicrafts, Art and Folk Culture thus ushering a positive change in their living condition and to sustain their livelihood. It is One of the very first kind completely dedicated towards the handicrafts, handloom & ecotourism of Bengal under one roof thus providing a window towards Bengal’s tangible and intangible culture & heritage to both National & International Artlovers,Tourists and Collectors across the World .

Who else is working in this space and how is what you are doing unique?

Biswa Bangla,Bandhan Creations,FabIndia,HaateNataate to name a few are doing the same work through their Brick & Mortar retail Stores however they are selling handicrafts & handloom only.rangamaati.com would provide opportunity to Art lovers Worldwide to extend Support towards the handicrafts & handloom Artisans of Bengal through buying Online their indigenous artwork ,hand-woven products. For tourists and those who want to explore Bengal’s Natural Scenic Beauty could discover and book great home stays as would be made available within some culturally diversified locations of Bengal. The Data Archive section would act as a knowledge base for anyone who would want to know about the diversified culture and rich heritage of Bengal through Video, Audio & various research documents & blogs as submitted by research Students of Bengal .

Why We’re the Best People to Tackle ItI am dynamic professional ever eager to take up new challenges and ride through it.Result oriented with an established track record of creating and delivering ecommerce solutions that met objectives tied to business .

My passion for Art and their revival is the driving force behind the project rangamaati and revival of generations old Art & Skills has been the priority and primary aspect which profit earning as secondary objective has established rangamaati as a Standard brand and fair Trading organizationAround 14 years of progressive ecommerce and online data management experience would allow in depth understanding & implementation of strategies .Efficient communicator with ability to facilitate across functional organizations and regions.

My Exposure to international and domestic Clients across (US / EUROPE and APAC) would allow easy interaction and Cultural Information exchange thus creating a Customer Base across Globe loving Indian Artwork and wanting to own one.

Strong experience in people and Process Management. • Being Six Sigma green Belt certified wold allow a better understanding of Quality/compliance Management thus leading the TEAM and organization in right direction

Our Theory of Change

Our Plan to Become Financially Sustainable

Private Fundraising.Crowd Funding.Small Medium Scale State Government Loan.

Our Plan to ScaleWe have plans to unite communities on basis of Artwork as practised over the location where the artform took birth,flourished and sadly declining---hunger is more stronger than religion ,caste creed and differences of Opinion...so we need work as a team if we have to change the living & socio-economic conditions for the kaarigaars of Bengal,India...

we have plans to build small clusters headed by an experienced kaarigaars among the group of kaarigaars and bring a touch of modern designs and create utility based artwork and as far as handlooms concerned new designs ,more Eco friendly fabrics is the new thought to work upon breaking the fixed mind set about Bengal’s handloom taant ,cotton and khadi weaved saree and dress materials is the only way towards mass acceptance of the handicrafts & handloom thus paving path towards revival of these artworks.

Diversification of artwork over to different medium is the only way we could compete with Machine made cheap handicrafts decor and synthetic fabrics...we plan to involve the artisan in the R&D and trying out possibilities ...just like any experiment it involves a lot of cost ...unfortunately though we have the plans and thoughts in the pipeline yet execution could only be possible with in flow of cash and funds..

Our Next Steps!Funds & Grant will be utilized on three major heads - publicity for online store,as online sales is our only major source for retailing, awareness about our online store has to be worked upon working actively with B2B and B2C sites. Various media like print, electronic, brochures, visiting cards letterheads with our logo,safe eco friendly packaging boxes with our logo need to be actively used at least for one year of start so that people becomes aware about us our vision,mission and handicraft items across West Bengal we have to offer .We would be working with Google and various other Search Engines across Internet towards enhancing the page listing & rank thus increasing the hits on our website which we plan to technically shift from Static one to fully functional eCommerce Site. Promotion and Advertisements of our products and services would be done through Facebook page promotion,a paid service to make our social presence stronger,to make a professional presence in the Social media like LinkedIn we would be acquiring professional paid services from LinkedIn. Capturing the essence of West Bengal Cultural roots, craftsmanship and cottage industry along with empowering of artisans cluster across West Bengal has been of prime importance for us and I see rangamaati evolving over time taking new paths ,creating new responsibilities and forcing us along to learn and evolve in the due course.