Rajnish Jain

Co-founder

Founder of Avani

Rajnish Jain is the co-founder of Avani (1999)[1], an Indian non-profit working on livelihood, environment and rural & agriculture from Pithoragarh.

Avani

Avani was founded in 1999 by Rashmi Bharti and Rajnish Jain, growing out of the Kumaon chapter of the Barefoot College. Based in Tripuradevi, near Berinag in Pithoragarh district, it creates rural livelihoods through natural-dye handweaving (Earthcraft Cooperative), bioenergy projects such as solar power and pine-needle-based clean cooking fuel, and a primary school combining Montessori and Steiner approaches.

Avani reports the following, on its own site:

2,200+ artisans and farmers benefited through its rural enterprise model since inception
Rainwater harvesting at its campus stores nearly 670,000 litres, meeting over half its annual water needs
120 KW biomass power plant supplies electricity to 100–150 village households and sustains livelihoods for about 100 families