In the early hours of 11 October, a Mini Cooper hit a scooter near Kochi airport. Three young people died: Devika, Gopika and Iyas. They were students who also worked part-time, and they were riding home after tea. Police say the 19-year-old driver had drunk at three bars that night,...
From Kerala’s jewellery giants to Tanishq’s nationwide dominance, India’s gold business raises a fascinating question: Is the real money in selling gold, or in understanding the Indian obsession with it? Walk through almost any major town in Kerala, and you will notice something remarkable. One jewellery showroom opens, and soon...
On Gandhi Jayanti, we remember the man who taught India that freedom could begin with something as simple as a thread. Today, October 2, we remember Mahatma Gandhi as the leader of India’s freedom struggle, the man of non-violence and Satyagraha. But there is another Gandhi we should remember. The...
A Different Way of Buying Handloom — Built Around the Customer, Not Excess Inventory Handlooom.com, a brand of DMZ International Imports & Exports Pvt. Ltd. and associated with the Save Handloom Foundation, operates on a different business model from conventional fashion and handloom retailers. We do not believe that handloom...
Growing old deserves respect. It does not give anyone the right to control everyone around them. There is an uncomfortable subject that Indian families rarely discuss openly. What happens when a parent reaches 70 or 75 but becomes more controlling, more interfering, more demanding and more destructive—not less? Some elderly...
In D2C fashion, everyone sees the photographs. The model. The product. The packaging. The Instagram reels. The website. The influencer wearing it. Almost nobody sees the work holding the business together. And that is where many new fashion entrepreneurs get their first shock. Fashion Is Not Just About Fashion Launching...
You walk into a street with five mobile phone shops. Each one sells a different brand. You spend an hour comparing prices, features, and offers before picking one. You feel like you made a smart, independent choice. Here is the twist. Four of those five brands may belong to the...
Every day we hear about charities receiving donations from individuals, support from companies through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and even grants from international organisations. We admire the schools they build, the hospitals they support, the lives they transform, and the communities they uplift. Yet very few people ever stop to...
This is probably the hardest question I’ve been asked since starting Handlooom.com. “If a handloom saree sells for ₹8,000 or ₹15,000, why isn’t the weaver wealthy?” At first glance, it seems like an obvious contradiction. Expensive products. Highly skilled artisans. Centuries-old craftsmanship. Yet many weaving families continue to face financial...
One of the most common questions I hear is: “Why should I spend ₹5,000 on a handloom saree when I can buy something similar online for ₹999?” It’s a fair question. But it’s also a question built on an illusion. Because the two products are rarely the same. One is...
