“Though it started off as a business, over the years our mission statement began to incorporate our commitment toward both craft and crafts people. Our constant value addition has been the fact that we use as many hands as possible. We intend to further experiment and ensure the creation of contemporary markets for value-added textiles,” says Darshan Shah.

#2 Kanishka's

Turnover in fiscal 2012 was under Rs 10 crore

Established in 1970 in Kolkata, Kanishka's began as an entrepreneurial effort by Nandita & Dilip Raja. Kanishka’s set up its first handloom unit in Orissa in the early 1980’s. Today it has weaving units in Bengal, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa. Kanishka's products are also exported to US, Japan and France. Kanishka’s has been a pioneer in modern handblock printing and handloom weaving textiles for nearly 4 decades in India. The Kanishka’s brand stands for the highest sense of aesthetics and design sensibilities in its specialty field of hand block printing and handloom textiles all over the world.

#1 Bailou & Byloom

Rs 13 crore was the turnover in fiscal 2012

Bailou was set up by designer duo Bappaditya Biswas and Rumi Biswas in 2002. Their retail venture Byloom was launched in 2011 in partnership with Malavika Banerjee & Jeet Banerjee. Their products have arresting colors and eye-catching textures from Bengal. Bailou has a network of 1,300 weavers. Their retail outlets are positioned as trendy destinations for handloom products and are targeted at youngsters. Brand-building is done through events and a strong social network presence.

Bailou has catered to customers like Priyanka Gandhi, Aparna Sen, Hillary Clinton, Meira Kumar and Sunanda Tharoor.

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