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March 2008 |
Rural Innovations Company is founded with the idea that business solutions are
the answer to socio-economic problems in communities around the world |
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April 2008 |
First employee, Cherisse Dorangrichia |
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May 2008 |
Business Plan presented to St. Petersburg College faculty as a part of the Senior
Capstone Project and received with great enthusiasm |
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June 2008 |
Villages in India identified as part of the first phase of model villages; the
Santal villages around Madhupur, Jharkhand. |
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July 2008 |
Three company divisions created for providing employment for the tribal
communities, Handicrafts, Processed Foods and Agricultural enterprises. |
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August 2008 |
Temporary relocation of the Headquarters to Madhupur, India to begin the first
phase |
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November 2008 |
Second Employee, Amit Singh hired to head the Handicrafts division. The
Processed Foods division is registered under the Small Scale Industries Act of
India |
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December 2008 |
The handicrafts division is registered with the government of India. The first
product line in the handicrafts division is launched. It is called Clay Candles
and is an instant hit |
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January 2009 |
The first set of promotional products for the handicrafts division is shipped to
the US. The company starts the hiring process for the Food Processing division. |
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February 2009 |
Two new divisions are created, one in Human Resources and the other in Information Technology. Two MBA specialists
are hired as well, Susanta Panda for HR and Kundan Kumar for IT. |
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March 2009 |
Rural Innovations Company is now on a growth spurt with four employees joining
this month and a total of eight employees on our payroll.
The Jute and Bamboo division are also hiring to fill full-time positions in
designing and weaving. |
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April 2009 |
Work on the ecommerce website is underway and is in full swing. The IT team consisting of Kundan Kumar and Dilip Kumar is putting in a lot of effort to make sure that we are able to roll out the Beta version in time.
The Handicrafts division added another full time artist/painter to its payroll.
The FarmAid store has hired its first Storekeeper to manage and overlook the
store in Ruthvadi |
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May 2009 |
The Beta version of the ecommerce website has been launched and is now under
testing. |
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June 2009 |
The Mohalis start working with us in our bamboo division.
We've made our first big sale, over 100 tealight candle holders sold, including
10 gift boxes. Feedback from our customer is that our customer service is top
notch. To read the review click here.
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July 2009 |
We have started working with a group of single mothers and young women who are hard-pressed for money and are struggling to make ends meet.
They are now being trained to work with the embroidered bags division and they will be making hand-made embroidered bags.
Made our first custom design sale to create a sculpture using clay and cement.
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August 2009 |
Our first relief project, Jharkhand Drought Relief 2009 is underway; our goal is to make 1000 eco-friendly jute shopping bags that are handmade by the people who live in these drought stricken villages. They will earn a daily wage well above the minimum wage for the next two months and will be taught the skill of making bags as well. You can read more about the project here. |