Jaipur Rugs Foundation / NGO Jaipur / Jaipur Carpets / Say ‘No’ to Child Labor: JRF Scores on Google Page Rank

'It is important that our executive MBAs experience India'

'It is important that our executive MBAs experience India'

Q&A: Phil Rosenzwieg, Professor, Strategy and International Management

Chitra Unnithan / Ahmedabad February 15, 2010, 0:18 IST

The executive MBA programme at Switzerland-based International Institute for Management Development (IMD) is ranked among the top 20 such courses worldwide. As part of the course, the institute conducts a Discovery Expedition to India. Phil Rosenzwieg, professor of Strategy and International Management, and his students recently visited India as part of the expedition. Rosenwieg spoke to Chitra Unnithan about his experience. Edited excerpts:

What is the Discovery Expedition all about?

EMBA Discovery Expeditions are real-time lessons on exploring new trends and ideas, and evaluating their relevance for participants and companies. They include visits to the likes of Silicon Valley and Shanghai. Our programme involves work with company-specific assignments, along with three Discovery Expeditions to other parts of the world. Our goal is not just to learn about the economy and business challenges but also to learn about the social and environmental issues.

After Shanghai and Silicon Valley, why did IMD choose India for the discovery programme?
India is a very important part of the world stage today. It is very important that our executive MBAs experience India. India is a global power in the making, if it manages to achieve anywhere near its full potential over the next few years. Our visit to India sets us up nicely for our next trip to Shanghai in May, as there are many points of comparison and contrast between these two giant nations — economically, socially, politically, environmentally, and more.

What were the take-aways from India?

India is also a place of stark contrasts, often positioned side by side: abject poverty next to western luxury and sophistication; global corporations (both Indian and foreign) next to grassroots entrepreneurship. IMD Executive MBA participants visited leading companies including Infosys Technologies, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Auto, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Zensar and interacted with speakers who talked about issues like entrepreneurship, advertising in Indian culture, spiritual life, and microfinance. The participants stayed in Mumbai where they witnessed the full range of urban life — from Marine Drive to Dharavi, a slum of more than a million people. The group also travelled to Pune, and visited villages east of Pune to understand rural issues, including education and agriculture.

And last autumn, five leading companies (ICICI, Tata Motors, Wipro Water, Zensar, and Jaipur Rugs) identified two projects each, which groups of students began to work on in December, first on a remote basis, then during their time at IMD from Jan 17-23, and then while in India, finally making presentations to the client firms on this month. Perhaps this was the most valuable part of the Discovery Expedition.

How important is India as an education market for IMD?

India is highly important as a country for us to learn about. It has not, so far, been a large market for IMD, but we hope that will improve over time. We have had a few Indian nationals doing our EMBA, and would like to have many more.

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/%5Cit-is-important-that-our-executive-mbas-experience-india%5C/385701/

Jaipur Rugs Foundation

The secret of life is in art- Oscar Wilde

Jaipur Rugs Foundation, a social initiative of J aipur Rugs Company Pvt. Ltd (JRCPL) theorizes on producing employability for the unemployed, providing employable opportunities for the ambitious artisans and supporting them in every way to graduate them as entrepreneurs. Its purpose is to uplift the underprivileged communities through the art of weaving in those areas where agricultural activities are not possible.

The goals of this ground breaking foundation are:
- To encourage and improve the living conditions of the rural weavers and artisans
- To enhance their earning capacities through proper guidance and training
- To facilitate the rural artisans with the latest technologies
- To make the Indian carpet industry at par with the International standards

Jaipur Rugs Foundation came into being in 2004. In a span of just four years, the foundation has expanded to eleven states in India touching 1000 villages, over 10000 families and more than 25000 artisans. Currently, Jaipur Rugs Foundation plans to expand its spheres across all states in India.

More on Jaipur Rugs Foundation

The founder and trustee of the Jaipur Rugs Foundation, Nand Kishore Chaudhary believes in supporting the rural artisans and weavers in a way that they transform themselves into entrepreneurs and take the industry to a new level. Jaipur Rugs Foundation was earlier known as the International Research and Development Institute. The foundation’s model propagates the idea of a facilitator that bridges the underprivileged and unemployed with the government.

JRF’s website now has new sections for the viewers to interact. So if you want to browse through all the information pertaining to carpets, weavers, want to leave your comments or suggestions or want to be abreast of the recent changes and developments in the industry or foundation, do visit us at:

http://www.jaipurrugs.org/news.htm

http://www.jaipurrugs.org/JRF-Article.htm

http://www.jaipurrugs.org/2-JRF_Article.htm

http://www.jaipurrugs.org/map.htm

http://www.jaipurrugs.org/guestbook.htm

Say ‘No’ to Child Labor

Owing to the growing population, the means and standards of living in India are depleting in the rural areas. Child labor is very common to see in all industries. Children are considered to be the futuristic bread earners and therefore are induced by their families to work along with them. Factories and other industries have failed to set up prescribed standards of work and environment for these helpless children. They continue to work on the looms or coal mines behind closed and guarded doors………

Click here for more information

Old Methodology

Traditionally, all the designs that were used in the carpet were done manually. It was entirely dependent on the designers’ creativity to produce a range of colorful designs. Design outline is prepared on white paper and then filled with appropriate colors to make them different from existing designs. The same design was used to be converted into different graph papers to enable weavers understand them clearly so that while interlocking of wool into cotton they could interpret the designs accurately. After the finalization of design, a reduced graphical format of the complete design was prepared and given to weavers. The whole designing process used to take around 20-25 days depending on the compactness and size of the carpet.

New Methodology

With the advent of advanced computer systems, designing softwares are used inorder to facilitate the designers with vivid colors and graphs. The ‘maps’ are prepared and a print of these is sent to the weavers. While weaving one translates verbally the graphical design into their own weaving language called “Boli” and concurrently other person interlocks the woolen threads into a net of cotton threads called as “Tana-Bana”. Time taken for interlocking the wool varies according to their knotting compactness. Thus, the higher the compactness the greater is time spent by the weavers. At the end of the process, a tough carpet made by weavers goes through several chemical processes and final product comes out as a soft and colorful floor covering.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

JRF Scores on Google Page Rank

Google is now running its latest Page Rank update. JRF’s website http://www.jaipurrugs.org has moved from a page rank of 0 to a page rank of 3 and other websites that we manage have also witnessed their page rank increase this morning. As noticed in the past, the update usually takes a couple of days to settle, so do not get too ecstatic because the Page Rank scores might still change. Regarding the rankings, I have not notice many big differences as the rankings’ changes usually take place over a larger period of time before and after the effective Page Rank change. The last Google Page Rank Update took place mid- January, just after one in October 2007. Based on the last three consecutive updates, I would suspect that Google actually proceed with the update every 3 to 4 months, which would bring the next one around July-August 2008.

Our updated website With PR
www.jaipurrugsco.com PR 3
www.jaipurrugs.org PR 3
www.jaipurrugs.com PR 3
www.jaipurrugs.net PR 1

1 comment:

Prakash Sharma said...: Excellent very good news; May 8, 2008 at 9:43 PM

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Women Empowerment

While implementing various projects across several villages in India, JRF worked with women artisans and discovered that they were more enthusiastic and proactive about learning carpet weaving to uplift their social status and earning. Males on the other hand, were skeptical and less bothered to understand their family needs. Through various efforts and collaboration, JRF was able to curb injustices prevailing against women. Carpet weaving has helped many rural women artisans to sustain a better livelihood.………
Click here for more information

Indian Carpets

Indian carpets often reflect the influence of Persian designs yet they have made a unique place for themselves by their exquisite patterns, attractive colors and elegance. The typical knotted Persian carpet weaving reached India during the 13th -14th century and was treated as a royal craft. The craft flourished in Kashmir and in other parts of Uttar Pradesh. Knotted carpets are either of silk or wool piled with cotton wefts generally. The patterns can be traced to have a Persian origin and so do the color schemes. By and large the Indian carpets color schemes are considered subtler than their Persian or Turkish counterparts. Namdah or the felt wool carpet making flourished in Himachal Pradesh, Kashmir and Rajasthan and is known for intricate chain stitch embroidery and applique work. Traditional Indian carpets are called dhurries. They are the Indian counterparts of Turkish kilims. They are flat weaves and may be woolen or cotton. Patterns vary with the region and can be geometric, floral or traditional ikat patterns. The various types of carpets available are hand-knotted carpets, hand-tufted woollen carpets, Gabbe woollen carpets, Durries, pure silk or wool carpets, stapple/synthetic carpets and chain stitch rugs.