Sumita Ghose, is an Indian entrepreneur who started the Rangsutra collective and won the

Nari Shakti Puraskar The Nari Shakti Puraskar () is an annual award given by the Ministry of Women and Child Development of the Government of India to individual women or to institutions that work towards the cause of women empowerment. It is presented by the presi ...

award from the

president of India The president of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, and the commander-in-chief, supreme commander of the Indian Armed ...

. Hundreds of artisans co-own Rangsutra and through the company they sell their goods bridging the gap to global customers such as Ikea.

Life

Ghose was born in Kolkata, and she graduated in Mumbai before taking a master's degree in economics. She was married to Sanjoy Ghose, and they worked with rural communities trying to improve health education in Rajasthan. Her husband was kidnapped in Assam by the

United Liberation Front of Assam The United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) is an armed separatist insurgent organisation, that operates in the Indian state of Assam. It seeks to establish an independent sovereign nation state of Assam for the indigenous Assamese people throu ...

and he never returned. For many years she worked in rural areas of India trying to improve their society and economy. In 2007, Ghose decided that she would establish a business to assist rural artisans to find better paid work and the first task was to establish some working capital. She did not have that kind of money, and the banks could see that she had no collateral to offer to secure a loan. Ghose decided that she would persuade the artisans to invest and in exchange they would own shares in the emerging company. It worked although some of the investors now owned share certificates, and this was their only possession as everything else in their lives belonged to their husbands. The new business was the Rangsutra collective. Ghose was chosen to receive the

on International Women's Day in 2016. The award was made by President

Pranab Mukherjee Pranab Kumar Mukherjee ( ; born, 11 December 1935 – 31 August 2020) was an Indian statesman who served as the president of India from 2012 until 2017. He was the first person from West Bengal to hold the post of President of India. In a pol ...

at the

Presidential palace A presidential palace is the official residence of the president in some countries. Some presidential palaces were once the official residences to monarchs in former monarchies that were preserved during those states' transition into republics. ...

in New Delhi. Another fourteen women and seven institutions were honoured that day. At the time Rangsutra had 2,000 artisan investors in the collective. In 2020,

Ikea IKEA ( , ) is a Multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in Sweden that designs and sells , household goods, and various related services. IKEA is owned and operated by a series of not-for-profit an ...

launched its Botanisk range created by their designers in collaboration with social entrepreneurs in Thailand, Romania, Jordan and India. Rangsutra, which Ghosh still leads, was one of their India suppliers together with Industree, and Ramesh Flowers. Rangsutra is supplying cushion covers made from sustainable materials fitting in with the botanical theme. They and Ikea are creating work for hand loom weavers and other rural artisans.

Awards

Ghosh has also been awarded grants and fellowships. She has been in the

Fulbright Program The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

, and the

Aspen Institute The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1949 as the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C., but also has a campus in Aspen, Colorado, its original home. Its stated miss ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ghosh, Sumita 21st-century Indian businesswomen 21st-century Indian businesspeople Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Nari Shakti Puraskar winners