1978
Nand Kishore Chaudhary (NKC) gave up a bank job and borrowed Rs. 5000 from his father to start his carpet business. The journey began with 2 looms, 9 weavers and one scooter in Rajasthan.
1978
Over 3 years NKC’s production expands to 10 looms and a larger pool of artisans.
1980
NKC receives the first of many media appreciations. Inside-Outside features NKC in a feat titled " Carpets: More than a revival" by Ilay Cooper..
1986
NKC takes the first step towards his dream of connecting artisans to global markets. He initiates direct exports cutting out another level of middlemen.
1989
This was an important year for Jaipur Rugs. NKC moved to Gujarat’s tribal belts to start building our strongest network to date. Gujarat’s tribal artisans joined the Jaipur network this year.
1992
With a growing network within India’s most rural belts, the Government of India grants Jaipur the rare priveledge (then) of using walkie-talkies to monitor and connect different areas.
1999
NKC officially names his business Jaipur Carpets in India while setting up a sister concern in USA called Jaipur Rugs Inc. to ease sales and distribution in North America.
These were teething years with his first daughter Asha joining the business to help as NKC’s focus remained at the grassroots.
2000
Touching 10000+ lives in a day, Jaipur Rugs crossed a milestone with its rapidly increasing artisan network. This growing chain of weavers from small villages of Rajasthan and tribal areas of Gujarat became the backbone of a company on its way to becoming a global name.
2004
Jaipur Rugs Foundation was set up under the Rajasthan Public trust Act. JRF was set up as a body within the Jaipur family that worked to make artisans happy. This is done through trainings, skill upgradation programmes and social interventions. http://www.jaipurrugs.org/
2006
Jaipur’s network grew to 40 weaver groups across 10 states of India. It was also the year Jaipur Rugs brought laurels to India by recieving its first international design award "America's magnificient Carpet Award".
2007
1 Million Square Feet Production of Handknotted Carpets and implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning. By this time Jaipur Rugs had engaged 40000 artisans across India and the ERP system brought the most isolated villages of India on a digital interface, truly linking the grassroots to global.
Various small digitalisation steps were also adopted by the designers by this time such as moving from handpainted maps to computer operated design softwares. This led to beginning of a revolution in an inherently traditional industry.
2008
Jaipur Rugs doubled up the showroom space, blessed with an increasing business curve.
2009
Jaipur is featured in C. K. Prahalad’s (Padma Bhushan Award Winner) 5th Edition Of “The Fortune At The Bottom Of The Pyramid” : A valuable appreciation was given to Jaipur Rugs's business model and its founder Mr. Nand Kishore Chaudhary
2012
“Catalysing Change”- Artisan to enterpreneur : Mr. Nand kishore chaudhary was a speaker at TEDx hosted by IIM Ranchi. The theme of the talks was "Catalysing Change" and NKC contributed by sharing his journey on a difficult path of social enterprise and reiterated the organization’s commitment to uplift society through the art of carpet weaving
2013
From being featured in well-known magazines to making it on the cover of one of the most esteemed magazines, Outlook Business; Jaipur Rugs started leaving its imprints in people’s minds and hearts.
2013
Jaipur Rugs’ first contemporary handknotted collection 'Chaos Theory' by Kavi, was launched at Domotex 2013, in Hannover, Germany.
2015
'Anthar', a rug from Kavi’s 'Project error' collection becomes Asia's only rug to win a special mention in German Design Award, 2016.
Anthar, born out of errors, reflects a human journey as three weavers struggle to find their rhythm while working on a rug.
2016
Love is spread when people take time to connect. To spread this love, Jaipur Rugs took an innovative initiative at Domotex, 2016 to connect its artisans to global customer base. We gifted beautiful postcards handmade by our artisans to our customers and got one (in some cases, even multiple!) back from them for our artisans.
