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Inside Ballia’s bindi-making network, led by women’s groups
Bindi-making in Ballia rarely looks like an industry from the outside. It happens in homes and small workspaces, where sheets are cut into tiny shapes, pasted carefully onto cards, and finished with stones, beads, pins, or thread. The result is a product that moves through weddings, temple visits, local markets, and exhibition stalls, while quietly supporting a chain of livelihoods driven largely by rural women and steady handwork.One of the people organising this work is Geeta Verma, a resident of Gadwar in Ballia. Since 2017, she has been linked to bindi production through a women’s self-help group, helping turn what was once scattered home-based activity into a coordinated source of income. Ballia’s bindi work has also gained visibility through the state’s One District One Product (ODOP) programme, which has created clearer pathways for local producers to reach wider markets.From entry to enterpriseVerma did not come from a business background. She recalls a period when she was not engaged in steady work and spent most days around home. A visit to the district industry office changed that direction. Encouraged to explore a product-based livelihood, she studied bindi-making and felt it was a skill she could learn and grow alongside other women.After a short training… Read MoreYourStory RSS Feed
Inside Bulandshahar’s Pottery Cluster, Where Craft Meets Market
In Khurja, located in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahar district, pottery is more than a decorative product. Ceramic wares made here find place in homes, hotels, galleries, and export showrooms, supporting a long chain of livelihoods—from clay preparation and moulding to painting, glazing, and firing.Recognising this deep-rooted ecosystem, ceramic products have been identified as Bulandshahar’s district product under the One District One Product (ODOP) initiative, with Khurja’s pottery cluster at its core.At the heart of this cluster is Guljeet Singh Minhas, an ODOP beneficiary who runs Minhas Pottery with his family and a team of local artisans. The workshop traces its origins to 1960, when his father moved from Kanpur to Khurja and started the unit with technical training in ceramics and limited resources. Over time, the enterprise grew steadily, shaped by Khurja’s strong craft culture.Today, Minhas Pottery focuses on artistic ceramics for galleries, exports, and established Indian brands, consciously avoiding mass-market production. According to Minhas, this approach helps retain skilled artisans within the district and ensures stable local employment.Raised within the workshop environment, Minhas later studied ceramic engineering, enabling him to modernise operations while preserving handmade quality. In 2012, he replaced coal and diesel-based kilns with gas-fired kilns, improving product consistency,… Read MoreYourStory RSS Feed
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Veranda Learning Q3 profit soars 110% as ‘Veranda 2.0’ strategy gains...
Education services provider Veranda Learning Solutions reported a surge in third-quarter profit on Friday, as a sharp rise in student enrollments and a strategic focus on cost optimisation under its "Veranda 2.0" restructuring plan bolstered the bottom line. This strategic pivot marks a transition from the company's "Veranda 1.0" phase, which was characterised by rapid acquisitions and expansion to build a unified technology stack across diverse learning formats.The Chennai-based company , which offers services ranging from K-12 education to professional certifications, saw its net profit jump 110% to Rs 17 crore for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2025, up from the same period a year earlier. This performance was underpinned by a 52% increase in revenue from operations, which reached Rs 117 crore, driven primarily by robust demand in the government test preparation and commerce verticals.The company's operational efficiency initiatives, including process standardisation and resource optimisation, led to a 328% surge in EBITDA to Rs 53 crore, while gross profit margins remained strong at 65%. "All business segments delivered healthy growth during the period. With the approval of the commerce demerger and completion of the vocational divestment, we are now better positioned to sharpen focus and scale our core verticals-… Read MoreYourStory RSS Feed
The vanilla ice cream complaint that stumped GM engineers
It sounded like a joke. It turned out to be a masterclass in problem-solving.A customer once wrote to General Motors, specifically its Pontiac division, with a complaint so strange that executives initially assumed it was fake. His new car, he said, refused to start only after buying vanilla ice cream.Every other flavour worked just fine. Here's how this complaint led to become a lesson! A complaint that made no senseThe letter explained a simple family ritual. After dinner, the family would vote on an ice cream flavour. The customer would then drive to the store, buy it, and head home. After purchasing his new Pontiac, something odd started happening.If the chosen flavour was vanilla, the car would stall on the return trip and refuse to restart. If the family picked chocolate, strawberry, or any other flavour, the car behaved normally. Same driver. Same route. Same car. Only one variable changed. To most people, this sounded absurd.Why GM took it seriously anywayInstead of dismissing the complaint, GM did something unusual. They sent an engineer to investigate.The engineer followed the customer, repeated the experiment, and confirmed the pattern. Vanilla trips did indeed fail. Other flavours did not. He began logging everything such… Read MoreYourStory RSS Feed
