Punar Founder Priya Ravindra Recognised Among Victoria's Indian-Australian Trailblazers in Business
Punar founder and chief executive Priya Ravindra has been named in a Herald Sun feature spotlighting Indian-Australian trailblazers making their mark on Victoria's business landscape.
The list brings together founders, executives, chefs, filmmakers, lawyers and creatives — women who have built companies, institutions and communities across the state. We are incredibly proud that our founder has been featured not once but two years in a row.
The business behind the name
Punar is a multi award winning purpose-driven brand creating sustainable luxury gifts, fashion and accessories. In March 2026, Punar artisan handwoven towels were at the Oscar’s week gifting suite showcasing the craftsmanship on a global stage.
Every collection is designed in Australia and ethically made by artisans in India, using eco-friendly materials and low-impact production practices.
That model is the whole point. Gifting and fashion have long been associated with volume, waste and anonymity, thousands of identical objects produced without much thought for who made them or where they end up. Punar was built to prove that the same category can carry craft, provenance and dignity instead.
The name says it plainly. Punar comes from Sanskrit, carrying the sense of renewal and beginning again for materials, for traditional craft techniques, and for the women whose skills sit at the centre of the business.
Recognition that keeps pointing outward
The Herald Sun listing follows Priya's inclusion in Success Magazine's Top 25 Change Makers in the World for 2024. A recognition that has consistently focused less on the business as an object and more on the artisan communities it exists to support.
Every gifting order placed with Punar becomes income for a maker, a reason for a craft to continue, and one less shipment of throwaway merchandise entering the waste stream.
Building beyond the brand
Priya's work extends past Punar. She is also co-founder of Lioness Global Initiatives, a women's expedition and leadership company that takes women leaders into immersive experiences designed to broaden perspective and build genuine connection — including an upcoming South India expedition.
The through-line between the two ventures is consistent: create the conditions for women to lead, earn and grow, whether that's an artisan in a workshop in India or a founder rethinking her next chapter on the other side of the world.
What a list like this actually represents
Features of this kind can look like personal milestones. In practice, they are usually the visible edge of something much larger.
Behind Priya's name sit the women artisans whose hands make every Punar product. Behind the wider Herald Sun list sit thousands of Indian-Australian running businesses, leading teams, employing people and reshaping industries across Victoria — most of whom will never appear on a list at all.
Representation of this kind does practical work. It shows the next generation of Indian-Australian women that founding a company, leading an organisation or building something from scratch is not an exception but an available path. It shifts who gets seen as a business leader in this country, and it makes the road shorter for whoever comes next.
Read the feature
The full Herald Sun feature — profiling Indian-Australian women across tech, retail, hospitality, media, fashion, the arts and the not-for-profit sector — is available on the Herald Sun website:
Meet the Indian-Australian women redefining success in Victoria's business landscape
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Punar creates sustainable, artisan-made gifts, branded merchandise and homewares — designed in Australia, handcrafted by women artisans in India.
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