Our Guiding Philosophy

To know that even one life has breathed easier because of you, is to have succeeded.

Advaita (2013 to present) is a social enterprise founded with the primary goal of creating sustainable livelihood for artisans by developing and marketing Indian Art & Craft forms to markets in India and overseas.

We aim to deliver on Sustainable Development Goals by providing work opportunities to artisans in their native lands thereby reducing urban migration, ensuring the authenticity of the craft and ensuring year-round employability for artisans and fair value for their produce in the domestic and international market.

Impact: We have grown from 6 artisan groups that we started with to 30 odd artisan groups (households) today, having impacted more than 150 artisans over the years.

Vision: We hope to work with over a 1000 artisans and weavers by 2030

Mission: Sustenance of the artisan and the art form

Notable Achievements

  • Showcasing & supplying its top-notch quality handloom & hand-painted products to Taj Khazana stores (Indian Hotels Company - Taj Hotels)
  • Advaita prides itself on having sustainable, eco-friendly low carbon footprint products that are sourced locally, thus utilizing local resources and skills, upcycling waste and scrap while upgrading artisan skills.
  • Advaita has sold more than 10,000 products through various corporate orders and bulk business deals (India and overseas), displaying its capabilities to control quality while producing bulk quantities while creating an impact on the ground.

Our Founders

  • Leena Barick Kulkarni

    By qualification & profession, Leena is an ex banker who quit the corporate rigmarole to work on creative arts & crafts. She has an engineering degree in Textile technology and a masters in management, but more importantly an eye for design, a love for handloom and age old crafts and

    people. An avid traveller and trekker, whose love for nature feeds our drive to continue to remain a sustainable brand and build on it further.

    LinkedIn 

  • Rahul Kulkarni

    A sales, marketing and training expert Rahul has over 26 years of experience having worked with leading organizations, namely Millipore, Castrol, Hewlett Packard, and Asian Paints. Rahul also consults corporates, SME’s and start-ups in business strategy, sales & marketing strategy, RTM & technology through his other firm Goalseek Solutions a niche consulting, training & technology firm.

    He champions the social cause through Advaita Handicrafts preserving native Indian art forms and sustained livelihood for rural artisans and is our strategy guiding light. Also an Ironman triathlete, Marathoner and avid trekker, he brings his zest for life and discipline into Advaita.

    LinkedIn