
The Pink City Leaders Boosting Make in India

The aim of the Make in India initiative was to position India as a significant hub for global manufacturing and design. Besides, one of the initiatives, Vocal for Local, showcases India's industrial capabilities globally while enhancing its manufacturing capacity. It focuses on establishing a robust manufacturing sector, which is anticipated to enhance India's economic path and generate employment for the nation’s significant youth population. The government is offering statewide incentives to enhance manufacturing. Jaipur, known as the Pink City, is famous for its vibrant cultural legacy. Additionally, the expansion of the manufacturing sector is crucial for the city's thriving economy, and it is anticipated to emerge as the next hub for innovation, entrepreneurship, and commerce. Here are the five leaders from the Pink City promoting Make in India.
Nand Kishore Chaudhary, Founder, Jaipur Rugs
Nand Kishore Chaudhary founded Jaipur Carpets, one of India's biggest producers of hand-knitted carpets, to provide local craftspeople with the international exposure they so richly deserve. He was a strong believer in the ability of love and innocence to mend society.
The history of Jaipur Rugs begins in 1978, when a young Marwari from the Rajasthani town of Churu launched a rug company.
Nand Kishore turned the age-old craft of weaving into a lucrative conglomerate while remaining steadfast in his principles. The information Nand Kishore found about the carpet industry was shocking: most carpets were made in Uttar Pradesh, yet Rajasthan supplied 45 percent of India's raw wool. He used Rs. 5,000 as startup capital to set up two carpet looms in his home's courtyard in order to close this gap.
Jaipur Rugs, which has its roots in relationships, is committed to the idea of doorstep entrepreneurship, which prevents artisans from having to leave their homes in pursuit of a stable source of income. Jaipur Rugs supplies raw materials to artists' houses so they can work on the final product through a network of skilled logistical assistants. The organization has improved the lives of more than 28,000 weavers and more than 12,000 other workers who produce carpets by using this strategy.
Rishabh Kothari, Founder and CEO of Talisman
In April 2018, Rishabh Kothari launched Talisman in Jaipur. His father, Sudhir Kothari, a mainstay in the jewelry trade industry and co-founder of Gem India Exports, trained him. Additionally, Rishabh worked for an Italian jewelry company for ten years. Talisman's initial approach was to target women in Tier-I cities between the ages of 22 and 35. The items would be of excellent quality, reasonably priced (between Rs 1,500 and Rs 3,000), and would include rings, bangles, bracelets, pendants, and earrings.
The business plan also called for selling the goods on the Talisman website and using delivery services like FedEx, BlueDart, Delhivery, Speed Post, and others to ship them throughout India. Soon after its launch, Talisman posted monthly sales of Rs 5 lakh, demonstrating the effectiveness of this well-thought-out and straightforward approach. Additionally, it is expected to expand rapidly, according to Rishabh, who stated that the company aims to reach monthly revenues of Rs 10 lakh (about equivalent to over Rs 1 crore annually) in the next six to eight months at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of roughly 60 percent. Cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Chennai, and Ahmedabad are home to talismans.
Gaurav Mehta, Founder of Jaipur Watch Company
After earning a master's degree in risk management from the UK, Gaurav Mehta started an insurance broking business. He went back to his passion—watches and coins—after failing to find fulfillment in his work. In 2013, Gaurav founded the Jaipur Watch Company by combining these two passions. The premium watch company, which has its headquarters in Jaipur, makes timepieces employing workmanship from British-era coins, fusing elegance and history. Bengaluru is where Gaurav established his manufacturing facility. He procured the raw resources from many nations and locations.
The watch's movements are imported from Switzerland and Japan, the crystal is supplied from Hong Kong, and the cases, crowns, dials, bracelets, and straps are either made in-house or purchased locally. The business has a single shop location in Select City Walk in Delhi. Tijori, the in-house brand of the upscale hotel The Oberoi, is one of eight retail touchpoints that it has through indirect sellers. Previously, JWC also sold its products under the Taj Hotels' in-house brand, Khazana.
Anuj Mundra, Founder, Jaipurkurti.com
Anuj Mundra established a salwar-suit trading company in Jaipur in 2003. He would buy sets of suits in bulk and resell them to merchants and vendors. Anuj established his own block and screen-printing businesses in Jaipur once he began to make some money. When Anuj traveled to Delhi in 2012, he noticed massive collections of e-commerce sites like Jabong and Snapdeal. E-commerce was going to be the next big thing and the future of buying in India, he realised after having an epiphany. In 2012, he returned to Jaipur and established Nandani Creation Pvt. Ltd., naming the e-commerce subsidiary Jaipurkurti.com.
Today, the business produces and markets a wide range of clothing goods, including suits, kurtis, and fusion wear, bottom wear, and more. Even the US, UK, Australia, Malaysia, and a few other nations are destinations for the B2C Company’s exports. In 2016, the company also went public on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) Emerge, which is a platform run by the NSE that allows startups and mid-sized businesses to go public.
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Chandra Kant Birla, Chairman of CK Birla Group
The CK Birla Group has developed outstanding technical, technological, and healthcare skills under CK Birla's direction. Fuelled by innovative technology, outstanding personnel, and an emphasis on operational excellence, the Group is moving forward on an ambitious growth path while cultivating long-lasting relationships with well-known international organizations.
Because they lower friction between moving components and enable the desired motion in machines, bearings of all sizes are widely employed in the automotive and industrial sectors.
However, this crucial component was imported from overseas before independence, which hurt native businesses. In 1946, BM Birla founded the National Bearing Company Limited (NBC), a bearing manufacturing company, to create an Aatmanirbhar Bharat.
With just one industrial facility in Jaipur, NBC—later renamed National Engineering Industries (NEI)—was founded.
The business started producing 30,000 cylindrical roller bearings in 1950, and it also provided them to the Indian Railways. Over the years, NEI has grown into one of India's leading manufacturers and exporters of bearings, with an FY19 turnover of Rs 2,511 crore. Currently, it employs five production facilities located in Jaipur, Gujarat, and Haryana to produce over 20 crore bearings in 1,450 sizes annually. In 1980, an all-female production plant was established in Newai, Jaipur.