We are a family run business based in a town called Hassan, near Bangalore, India. I was born in Hassan where my parents have lived since the 1940`s. My mother has had her own garment making business since 1973 which has been successfully serving the local community.

    My love for designing came from watching my mother at her work, inspiring me to further my education in fashion design. Whilst at college in Bangalore I was greatly honoured to be chosen to represent India in an international competition for young fashion designers which was held in Beijing, China. I was successful in competing against representatives from 26 other countries, and won an International Young Fashion Designer Award.

    Our business values stem from the family values I grew up with, namely:-
integrity, truth, openness, honesty respect, a commitment to knowledge-sharing, promoting self worth, and team work. These have proved themselves in my personal life and I want them to be the foundation of our business practices, both with our customers and employees.

    The idea of 'Merchants of India' came whilst on a beautiful holiday to Cornwall, UK. It occurred to me that in my part of India we are surrounded by talented craftsmen and women, whose work would be truly appreciated around the globe. With my design ideas and using these craftsmen and women we could offer ethnic items of superb quality, whilst keeping the prices very competitive. Hand-in-hand with this was my deep desire to see the orphaned, disabled, widowed and socially outcast peoples cared for.

    We are also a UK registered charity and will use the largest part of our proceeds to build an orphanage and employment training work-shop. Our aim is to feed, clothe, house and train these people to be good, honest citizens of India and the world. We already have a large piece of land on the out-skirts of our town which is the first stepping-stone to the realization of our vision.