The Asian Heritage Foundation (AHF) was founded in 1997 by Padma Bhushan, Shri Rajeev Sethi, acknowledged internationally for his outstanding contributions to Creative and Cultural Industries around the world. Since its formation, AHF’s mission has been to focus on the revival of traditional knowledge systems with skill-based rural development. The Foundation has been the recipient of two successive grants by the Japan Social Development Fund, administered by the World Bank, to pilot a design-led initiative for creating sustainable livelihoods for rural and tribal artisans. Titled ‘Jiyo’, this transformative program runs in 6 states: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Telangana. The Foundation has impacted more than 4383 artisans in 19 districts.
Rajeev Sethi is South Asia’s leading design professional and thinker noted internationally for his innovative contribution to preserving and celebrating the Indian Subcontinent’s rich cultural heritage. For more than 45 years, through his work in design and architecture, performances and festivals, exhibitions and publications, policy, and programs, he has identified ways to bring contemporary relevance to the traditional skills of vulnerable artisan communities and creative stakeholders. With innovative positioning and proactive interventions, he has created a basis for the maintenance of time-honored legacy industries in an era of industrial mass production and globalization. Mr. Sethi has moved effortlessly from one discipline to another with his consistent vision for cross-cultural and inter-medial curatorial and scenographic practices creating some of the most memorable artistic endeavors setting world standards. His formative years were spent in Paris working with Pierre Cardin and he was mentored by designers like Ray and Charles Eames and eminent Gandhians like Kamla Devi Chattopadhyay and Pupul Jayakar encouraged him to direct his talents to India. He has since gone on to champion the cause of Creative and Cultural Industries for the region, which is reflected in the setting of Rajeev Sethi Scenographers Pvt. Ltd. (RSSG) and the Asian Heritage Foundation (AHF).
To reach out to new market segments in India and elsewhere, the Foundation has introduced three novel ranges of products and services. JIYO! generating innovative high-end products and services created by skilled but highly vulnerable communities reclaiming their traditional livelihoods with design-led intervention. The second has been branded as JANI - created for young and willing consumers - eager to explore eco-friendly lifestyles, experiencing the handmade. JANI comes with the tag “affordable yet bespoke... quintessentially edgy, but high on design”. A larger part of India is still rural. Jiyo’s third brand, JIVA, is an attempt to reach out to rural consumers by making products and services created in the villages for rural markets, making them accessible wherever sustainable, for global supply.