Rural Innovations Company Seeks Private Funding

We have finally reached a stage where we can use some private funding and we have decided to actively seek investments in our Rural Pantry division. While it is exciting to think that we can now grow at a much faster rate, it is a little sobering that we will have to relinquish ownership of a part of our company. We will also have to explain our actions to our investors. So, there are pros and cons to our decision but nevertheless we are excited about our big step forward.
Here are a few quick updates on the rest of the company. We are launching our ecommerce website ( www.ruralhandicrafts.com )on the 3rd of April. It will be fully functional and will be the primary platform to advertise and sell our handicrafts products.
On the 11th of April, we will be inaugurating our FarmAid store in Ruthvadi. I will be adding a few pictures to our website to give you an idea on what the store looks like. We will be selling seeds and other farm related goods from that store. The store itself is built of mud and has one room, one attic and a courtyard in the back. It is small and meager looking but definitely beautiful.
On the 27th of April we will be inaugurating our Food Processing division. I will be giving you a few more updates on that shortly.
I am attaching a picture from our program over the weekend to honor and recognize Amit Singh’s hard work and commitment to his work. He became the first full time permanent employee of Rural Innovations Company on the 21st, our hats off to him.

Update on the FarmAid store

So here's a quick update on our FarmAid store project. Our first FarmAid store is being constructed in Ruthvadi, Jharkhand and is set to open on the first of April 2009. Ruthvadi is a little tribal village about 30 miles from the town of Madhupur and about 270 miles from Kolkata. Ruthvadi is a town that time had left behind a long time ago. Here the tribals live without electricity, running water and many other basic amenities we cannot dream to live without.
However, life here is still beautiful, tranquil and refreshing in ways that money can never buy. And here is where our FarmAid store is being setup, to give the Santals access to some much needed supplies, without disturbing their lives and their beautiful village.

If by Rudyard Kipling

I came across this poem the other day, one that I first read in high school. It inspired me then, and it had the same effect on me, all these years later.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!