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New York City: India’s Abhilasha Bahuguna, who has resolved to build a cooperative luxury brand owned by the herder women, figures among the 2021 honorees on a Billboard Campaign on NASDAQ Times Square by UN Partnerships and the agency that made the Dino ad for UNDP during New York Fashion Week.

These women leaders are social entrepreneurs transforming the fashion industry.

Abhilasha  Bahuguna, along with her husband G Prasanna  Ramaswamy, IAS  Batch  2010, is co-founder,  Looms  of  Ladakh, a not for profit organisation.

There has always been a high demand among the tourists visiting Leh for Pashmina and woolen products produced in Ladakh and the husband wife duo saw the opportunity and need to train and empower the rural women with better skills in order to hike their income and improve their quality of life through cooperative endeavor.

Spinning  wheels,  spindles,  raw wool and  other necessary items were given to  the  women in a couple of villages especially selected for a pilot project launched in 2016 and the same year the first collection of  clothes  were produced. In this way the Looms of Laddakh was born and rest is history.