The fragrance of India's bhoomi is being spread across homes globally, and how! This family trio from Kankroli has taken the traditional earthen utensils out from rural Indian homes and into thousands of homes across 25 countries.

Sunita Vyas, her elder daughter-in-law Madhavi Paliwal and younger son Dattatera came together with an initial investment of Rs 50,000 nearly two years back in the midst of the COVID pandemic and established a earthen utensil exporting business, which has got them to an eye-popping turnover of Rs 5 Crores in just 2 years.

The start-up begun by this trio is among the many successfull businesses that are coming up across India after the governments call of Make in India and the policy and infra support that is coming through for startups across the country. The family of Sunita Vyas presented their business idea at Shark Tank India and returned with an investment of Rs 50 Lakh.

How does the story unfold?

It was the COVID lockdown period across the globe and Kankoli, a marble mining and trading hub in Rajasthan's southern Udaipur division was sitting quitely waiting for things to return to normal. Under these circumstances, Sunita's family stood out to explore solutions to a decades old problem, bundling it with a solution to address the problems the local potters who were suffering due to the pandemic as well as the lockdown. Handicraft artisans and potters were among the worst hit during the COVID lockdown, and this business idea suddenly gave them an opportunity to see light at the end of the tunnel.

Sunita, Madhavi and Dattatreya, emboldened with the Make in India campaign in August 2020 started Swadeshi Blessings with a modest investment of Rs. 50,000, with a dual intent in mind. One, to promote rural culture and handicraft and the second, to provide livelihood to the potters in the region. Sunita says that in ancient times in India and other civilisations, food was cooked in earthern uttensils. With the advent of modern time, food began to be cooked in alumuninum and steel vessels. While the food gets properly cooked in earthern utensils, it does not happen so in utensils made of other metal. The taste of food cooked in earthern utensils is far better as well. However, during the lockdown period, the trend of traditional and local home made food began but earthern utensils were a rare commodity.

Noticing this gap, Swadeshi Blessings connected with local potters (kumhar) and began uploading photos of the clay utensils made by these potters on the internet. The response from the local market was overwhelming and transitioned to the national and international market expoentially. The initiative has now turned into a company with a Rs 5 Crore turnover, giving livelihood to potters not only of their immediate vicinity, but also to that of nearly 100 artisan potters across Rajasthan.

Very recently, the founders of Swadeshi Blessings entered their project in Shark Tank India Season 2, a business augmentation TV reality show on Sony TV. Two investors in the show were impressed with the business idea and promise and invested Rs. 50 lakh in the company. Swadeshi Blessings is exporting nearly 65 different utensils made by nearly 100 artisans from across Rajasthan.