Raatai: Weaving as a Calming Tool
At Raatai Handloom, weaving isn’t just an art form; it is an activity that soothes stormy minds, gives stillness to restless hands, and helps strike a balance between calm and chaos. For Kalaiyarasi Ramachandran, the founder, a loom isn’t just a tool—it’s an invitation to pause and be kind to your mind. The first weave […]
Daily Farmer- Making Everyday Foods Gourmet
A childhood diet of Discovery Channel’s Food Factories impressed an eight-year-old to such an extent that he began to dream, then worked towards the dream, and today has taken his first steps to live the dream. His own food factory. Despite an entrepreneur father and forefathers who owned and operated textile and spinning mills in […]
Siam Computing – Leveraging Al for Healthcare
Siam Computing, founded and led by Khuze Siam, is using AI-driven technology to ease and enrich the lives of the four Ps in healthcare – patients, providers, pharma companies and payers. Siam Computing’s responsiveness to market changes and its ability to build capacity is impressive, given that Khuze had a humble beginning churning out e-commerce […]
Elbow Engineers – Of Eco-Bricks, Atmospheric Water and Mosquito Traps
In 2015, as Chennai was drowning in the chaos of one of its worst floods, Kumar Loganathan stood in disbelief – not because of the water, but because of the irony. “There was water everywhere,” he recalls, “and yet people couldn’t drink a single drop.” That visual haunted him for years and eventually became the […]
Solinas Integrity -Experts of the Underground
Solinas Integrity, founded by Divanshu Kumar and Moinak Banerjee, has been working tirelessly to inspect, maintain and digitise underground assets such as water & sewer pipelines, septic tanks and other hidden infrastructure, using state-of-the-art technology. We bring their story to light. While most of us don’t spare a thought to the world under our feet, […]
Bversity – Four Friends Reimagining Biotech Education
In 2022, four friends from SRM – Sudharsan V, Raghul Jagannathan, Godwin Immanuel, and Saiganesh V decided to fix what biotech education kept getting wrong. They set out to build something that didn’t exist yet – a proper college for biosciences that actually helped students build a career. By 2023, they had raised ₹1.5 crore […]
Callidai Motor Works: Shifting Gears From Speed To Service
Biting the Bullet Bhargav Sundaram had always dreamt of a career in motorcycles. As the grandson of K.R. Sundaram Iyer, one of the visionaries who floated Enfield India Ltd, it’s not surprising! Bhargav grew up test-riding Enfield bikes, including the iconic Bullet, checking for acceleration, mileage, braking and stability until circumstances changed, and Enfield was […]
Chitra’m: The Indian Chocolate That Feels Like Home
Infusing Nostalgia into Chocolate When Dr. Arun Viswanathan talks about chocolate, it’s clear that he’s not talking about cliched bars. For him, it’s about memories, textures and feelings. “Chocolate,” he says, “can carry stories. You just have to let it speak. One bite of a Chitra’m bar can take you back to a festival from […]
Cronica Media – Changing the Way India Listens
Rooted in Words Sangeetha’s love for the spoken word runs deep. Even as she built her career across different industries, she kept coming back to one concept: stories shape how we see the world – and ourselves. “There’s something magical about audio,” she says, smiling. “It’s intimate. It feels like someone is sitting right next […]
Wired up! The Koodai Come-Back Story
The Weft and the Warp Mirnalini had a wire chair made to replicate the one in her family’s childhood photos on which she, her sister and each of her 6 cousins had posed individually as babies. This time she wanted her own baby to be seated on it for a picture, to continue the tradition. […]
Hew and Frost: Where Art Meets Cake
A Hobby That Became a Calling “I used to watch baking shows on TLC, and I was amazed at how simple ingredients could turn into something so wonderful,” Mridula Ganesan recalls. At the time, baking was just a fun weekend activity – something she enjoyed alongside her studies in textile design. It wasn’t until friends […]
Be Well Hospitals – Reaching Healthcare to Tamil Nadu’s Heartland.
Secondary-Care Hospitals for Underserved Peri-Urban Areas Dr.C.J.Vetrievel pioneered the 50 bed hospital chain concept by starting Be Well Hospitals in 2011. Be Well Hospitals today has 12 multispecialty units, one for each year of existence, and the network is growing. The chain has been very focused on serving peri-urban areas and small towns in Tamil […]
Performance Doctor – Staying ahead with Prehab, Rehab and Psychology
Taking the Field Keerthana and Harini’s clinic, Performance Doctor in Velachery, offers athletes and performers a host of services to help rehabilitate from injuries and trauma. The duos dream project, though inaugurated recently in 2024, has been over 10 years in the making! Performance Doctor offers prehab services, which they consider the most important part […]
The Fruit Shop on Greams Road – Juicing it up for generations
From Timber to Tropical Flavours Harris and Salim came from families that were deeply rooted in the timber and plywood business. “It would have been the easiest thing to just follow what our families were doing,” Harris recalls. “In fact we did that but then monotony set in and we wanted to create something different, […]
The Good Doll – From the Blue Mountains to Shark Tank
Call of the Mountains “We didn’t set out to start an enterprise. The Good Doll was accidental,” confesses Suhas Ramegowda, cofounder of this conscious business. “Seven years ago, we quit our city jobs and headed to the Nilgiris to get away from limiting societal and administration structures. We chose to build our dream home on […]
Untangle – Cracking the Code for a Puzzle Lounge
Senthilnathan C and Subhatra Priyadarshini are welcoming young and old alike to try their hand at puzzles, board games and art & craft in Chennai. Untangle, as their house of puzzles is called, encourages enquiring minds and provides them the right ambience to solve, play and learn. Untangle opened to a full house in Feb […]
Cavasa Chocolates: Chef Turns Chocolatier
It’s wild what can happen when you’re held up at home with a kitchen full of ingredients and way too much time on your hands. For Harshaa Jain, what started as a little lockdown boredom quickly spiralled into a full-on chocolate obsession. Fast forward a few months, and that casual experiment turned into Cavasa Chocolates […]
Bibha Crochet: Creativity, Courses and Community building
“The idea of working for someone else never sat well with me. I wanted to be the one making decisions, creating jobs, and inspiring others through my journey,” says Bharathi Priya, founder of Bibha Crochet, describing her evolution from uncertainty to entrepreneurship. This is the story of a lively, creative young woman, from Coimbatore who […]
Kaelir: Going Bananas in the Textile World!
Kaelir is where fashion meets eco consciousness, where passion to make a difference meets cool, where fiber from the discarded banana tree is transformed into clothes, home furnishings, and even sanitary pads. “Yaadhum oore yaavarm kaelir” wrote a poet two millennia ago. Among those that have taken it to heart and walk the talk is […]
Kreeda: Passion for the Games People Played
“Imagine balancing a coconut on a stick while dancing around a circle, trying not to drop it!” This playful story is just one of many that inspired Vinita Sidhartha to create Kreeda. Reviving Traditional Gaming Skills “It wasn’t easy convincing people that traditional games could still be relevant in today’s digital age,” smiles Vinita Sidhartha, […]
Comorin Coconuts – A Classy Collection from Kanyakumari
Jennith Churchill, the founder of Comorin Coconuts has come a long way from fielding questions like “You expect me to pay so much for a coconut shell?!” to making Kanyakumari proud of its stylish homegrown brand of elegant lifestyle products. It all started when Jennith returned to his roots in Kanyakumari, breaking free from […]
BOCS Pizza – A Growing Chain of Square Pizzas
“We don’t cut corners,” says Arun Kumar Vishveshwaran, the founder of the BOCS Pizza chain, that serves square and rectangular pizzas. Walk into any of their franchisee outlets in South India and you’ll get 22% more pizza than a round one. No matter how fast paced the world gets or how data-driven we are […]
auLinen: Love Story with Linen
Fashion designer Preethi’s romance with the fabric has brought to life au Linen, a fresh brand that embodies the essence of a coastal lifestyle. “I fell in love with linen while working on a spring-summer collection for a global brand,” confesses Preethi. Her very personal connection with the fabric is obvious as she enthuses, “Linen […]
Thaariniya – Earth’s Goodness For Your Skin
This is the story of how Dr. Mangala Vadivu, a Chennai-based academic with a PhD in media studies and head of a visual communications department, turned her quest for safe skincare for her newborn daughter into Thaarinya a brand blending safety, tradition, and personal care into a blossoming startup. The Birth Of Thaariniya Dr. Mangala […]
Miracletree – Marketing the Moringa
Saravanakumaran from Miracletree is popularising the amazing properties of the humble Moringa, a tree common in south Indian states, through a range of diverse products. What does Sangam literature, an Engineer-agriculturist, and the moringa tree have in common? At first glance, nothing, methinks. Talking to Saravanakumaran Rajendran of Miracletree, it all fell into place. As […]
