Ghosh, Sourodip,
Sourodip Ghosh is a graduate of Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), and is presently serving as the Executive Director of The Handloom School initiative of WomenWeave Charitable Trust. He has nurtured five batches of artisans at the School from fourteen different states of India. He is a teacher at heart who loves spending time with young minds. He is passionate about elementary education and strongly believes that effective education at primary levels can cure a lot of the socio-economic problems that plague India today. In fact, it was the opportunity to teach young adults that attracted Sourodip to the job when he first took charge as the Director of the School in 2017. His interest in handloom only developed later while interacting with the young students of the School, and learning about their lives. His interests span across web development, data management and learning new coding languages. In his free time he likes to strum his guitar and cook delicious meals.  

Goenka, Bhaavya,
Bhaavya Goenka is an alumnus of IICD, India and IIM-A where she received the gold medal for Academic Excellence and the best project award for the submission ‘Iro Iro: crafting fashion out of waste.’ Iro Iro now functions as a circular design practice based in Jaipur. Her practice engages with the upcycling of industrial textile waste through indigenous craft practices of India. The studio works towards building replicable systems that allow decentralised development whilst creating conversational products through zero-waste practices. Her efforts have been recognized by many reputed publications, such as The New York Times, The Guardian, Vogue, and Platform and have been invited to showcase her collections at Lakme Fashion Week twice. In the past 5 years, Iro Iro has also received awards from other esteemed platforms, like the Lexus Design award and 20 under 35 by DESIGN X DESIGN. “Only through collective action can we ensure healthy sustenance of the environment and people.” In her journey to make fashion responsible, she has collaborated with Calico, Japan; Matter prints, Singapore; Doodlage, India; The Summer House, India; The House of MG, India, among others. With every collection, the aim is not to achieve scale but to attain prosperity throughout the value chain because “the next big thing is lots of small things.- Thomas Lommée.” So far, they have upcycled about 10 tonnes of waste off-cuts into handcrafted fabrics saving 200 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere over the past 5+ years and generated work for 20+ artisans based in a village near Jaipur. They were selected to take part in the Fashion Open Studio x COP26 (UN Climate Change Conference 2021) and awarded a grant from the United Nations. By raising their voice globally, Iro Iro hopes to sustain local wisdom and enable Indian craft communities to reclaim their rights; to fair wages, to education, to dignity.

Goradia, Meera,
Meera Goradia is a graduate of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Her experience of working with artisan clusters spans 3 decades. She has co-founded Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan with Sushma Iyengar and Alka Jani. She was the Director of Khamir, a premier organization in Kutch for the cultural and creative industries. Khamir was nurtured by her over ten years to develop innovative approaches to the artisan sector. Her experience ranges ground level artisan supply chain realities, building farm to fibre value chains, archiving cultural histories along with frontend integration. Since 2016, she has been consulting organizations and companies such as AIACA, RiseWorldwide, Jaypore, Center for Pastoralism, Ikai Asai etc. In 2020, she co-founded Creative Dignity with a group of other creative professionals, as a network to support the artisan sector through and post the pandemic. She is the network anchor of Creative Dignity at present.

Gordhandas, Kishor N.,
Kishor N. Gordhandas is an enthusiast and avid collector of Playing Cards. He has written on the subject and has been a first prize recipient in the Visual Arts department for his two part article on the story of Ganjifa; he has delivered illustrated talks at museums and craft centers; displayed his collection; demonstrated the method of playing the Moghul Ganjifa game; and participated in several workshops. He has been a member of the International Playing Cards Society, London. since1981. He also collects Hand Fans and Puzzles.

Goswamy, Iti Saanchie,
Iti Saanchie Goswamy is a multi-disciplinary designer who enjoys delving into diverse creative pursuits to gain a better understanding of our world and the people who populate it. Her work focuses on finding parallels across subject areas, themes, and mediums while learning and evolving continually. She strives to create beauty and comprehension through empathy and compassion.

Gupta, Dr. Charu Smita,
Dr. Charu Smita Gupta is presently Deputy Director, Museum Collection, National Handicrafts and Handlooms Museum, New Delhi. She has been associated with their Research and Documentation Scheme since 1976. Holding a doctorate degree in Museology from Calcutta University and a Master’s degree in Social Anthropology from Delhi University Dr Gupta has been documenting and writing regularly on different aspects of Indian arts and crafts. She also works in the area of development of prototype handicraft designs suitable to contemporary market trends. As an academic visitor to Victoria and Albert Museum, London, she studied textile collections at the Museum with specific reference to embroidery.

Gupta, Manisha,
Manisha Gupta is an M.Sc- Maths , PGD-Computers with a long standing passion for the arts & crafts has done extensive research on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) issues related to traditional arts & crafts- creative and cultural industries. She conducted a study and created a strategy for protection of Traditional Knowledge & IPRs of artisans for an international development organization. She has written for reputed development magazines & leading national dailies and presented papers at national & international conferences.

Gupta, Parul,
Parul Gupta is a product designer qualified from the Indian Institute of Crafts & Design, Jaipur. Her area of specialization is dealing with hard materials like wood, metal, stone, bamboo, cane, glass and ceramics. In the past she has done assignments in Jaipur, Delhi, Orissa and North Eastern India. She is presently working in New Delhi.

Gupta, Swati,
Swati Gupta is Assistant Programme Officer (Vocational), Central Board of Secondary Education, coordinating development of Vocational courses and introducing them at the Senior Secondary level. She has taught at the pattern making and grading, fashion forecasting, textile science and portfolio development at undergraduate level in several institutions. Her research dissertation was on the optimization and use of ozone gas for discharge printing on cotton and cotton-jute substrates dyed with reactive dyes. She had also optimized the printing paste recipe which was foam based - the process was used to create line of products.

Gupta, Varsha,
Dr. Varsha Gupta is Professor in the Master of Design Department at NIFT New Delhi with almost 30 years of experience in Industry and Academia. During her 25 years at NIFT, she has held important roles as Head of Corporate Communications and Head of International Linkages and also Chairperson of the Master of Design Program. She was awarded Doctorate by NIFT in 2014 for her research titled, “Recycling of Post-Consumer Textile Waste and developing a model for Sustainable Development using System Dynamics”. She completed her MSc in Textiles and Clothing at Lady Irwin College, Delhi University and has been trained at Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), New York. During her tenure at NIFT, she has taught subject areas like Research Methodologies, Sustainable Design, Systems Thinking, 2D/3D Geometry in Design, Craft Studies, Pattern Making, Draping and Grading to under-graduate & post-graduate students. She has been an external examiner for Master’s Dissertation in Fabric and Apparel Science and an external expert in the Technical Review Board of the M.Sc. (Fabric and Apparel Science), University of Delhi. She has been an External Expert member on the Programmatic Review Panel at Limerick School of Art & Design, Limerick Institute of Technology, Ireland. She has also been a member of the Consultative Group constituted by the Registrar of Geographical Indications (GI). She is widely travelled and has also visited a number of Fashion Institutes across Europe and USA for initiating International Linkages for NIFT. She has presented papers at International Conferences in London, Leeds and Brussels and a video based on her PhD work was screened at the PhD festival in Milan, Italy. She is currently guiding two PhD candidates at NIFT and has guided more than 60 Masters thesis at NIFT.  

Halder, Soumik,
He is Associate Professor, Fashion and Lifestyle Accessories Department, National Institute Of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Bhopal. He did Graduate Diploma in Accessory Design from NIFT, New Delhi, PGDBA in Marketing from Symbiosis Centre of Distance Learning. His Ph.D. area was Strategic social system design in the area of guild crafts from Rabindranath University. The author has experience in handicraft exports industry as well as retail industry for nearly seven years. Past 13 years the author is associated with academics in NIFT.

Hijjawi-Qaddumi, Dr. Ghada,

Dr. Ghada Hijjawi-Qaddumi is a Kuwaiti National, President of World Crafts Council-Asia Pacific Region (WCC-APR).

She has a Ph.D. in the History of Islamic Art and Architecture from Harvard University, Massachusetts, U.S.A. and a Master degree in Arabic Literature from the American University of Beirut. Her dissertation for the Ph.D. Degree was published by the Harvard University Press, and in 2004, she was invited by the same university for a Post-Doctoral Fellowship (2004-2006).

She is the first Arab to become President of WCC-APR, elected in October 2012 by the Regional Assembly of the World Crafts Council-Asia Pacific Region for the term (2013-2016) and re-elected for a second term (2017-2020) as President of WCC-Asia Pacific Region (WCC-APR).  She is the first Asia Pacific President to hold the Presidency of WCC-APR for two consecutive terms (8 years) - (2013-2020). Dr Ghada was the Founder and Director of the Department of Research and Cultural Studies at the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters in Kuwait (2001-2002). A Deputy Director for Cultural Affairs in the Department of Antiquities & Museums at the Kuwait National Museum (1996-1999), a researcher at the Kuwait National Museum - Department of Antiquities and Museums, Ministry of Information, Kuwait (1991-1994) and prior to that, she was the Curator of Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyya, The Islamic Art Museum, Kuwait (1983-1990).    

Hitkari, S.S.,
Hitkari, S.S. (d:2008) was a well-known figure on the Indian Craft scene. A retired commissioner of Income Tax he had one of the largest and most extensive collection of Phulkaris and Sanjhi paper cuts in India. He not only contributed towards preserving this heritage but lectured and wrote extensively on the subject. His efforts, for the revival of Phulkari embroidery and Sanjhi, have seen a resurgence in these craft and opened livelihood opportunities for a large numbers. An expert on the crafts of Punjab his interest and erudition extended to other fields also.

Imam, Bulu,
Bulu Imam comes from one of India’s most distinguished families which has produced a steady stream of intellectuals and scholars over the past two centuries. His great grandfather Nawab Syed Imdad Imam “Asar” was conferred the title of Shams-ul-Ulema or poet Laureate by the British in the late 19th Cent. and his grandfather Syed Hasan Imam was the first president of the Indian National Congress from Bihar (1918, Bombay). A poet by birthright, an artist by inclination, and an environmentalist through personal obsession, he became the Regional Convener of INTACH in 1987 and continues in this capacity. Widely travelled, widely read, widely experienced, at 66 years of age today he lives and writes in Hazaribagh at the Sanskriti Centre which he founded in 1995 for preserving the tribal culture.

Innovarte,
Innovarte is a consultancy specialising in Design and Marketing of handicrafts. By collaborating with NGOs, small handicraft companies and associations, it provides artisans with technical assistance and training alongwith finding them viable markets within which to sell their art. Based in Madrid, Spain, Innovarte undertakes projects in South and Central America, the Caribbean, North of Africa and, now, it is beginning in India.

Irani, Kayhan,
Kayhan Irani is a community arts practitioner who in 2007 was awarded a certificate of recognition by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg for her arts work in immigrant communities.

Iyengar, Sushma,
Sushma Iyengar has engaged, amongst many other things, with the craft economies of India. She draws upon the research and documentation that she had put together while curating LL, her experiences in working with craft artisans, pastoralists, and investigating local and small scale economies. Sushma also mentors the wool study and the wool program at CfP. She continues to lead and curate the national exhibition on pastoralism in India, called Living Lightly- Journeys with Pastoralists, with CfP.