"Honored and humbled"

In recognition of his exceptional achievements as a young entrepreneur, chairman and managing director of Rasna Private Limited Piruz Khambatta was conferred the Dadabhai Naoroji Millennium Award on September 13, 2003.

The Dadabhai Naoroji Awards, instituted in 1998 by the Dadabhai Naoroji International Society, honors the memory of the first Asian in the British Parliament, a peerless patriot who laid the foundation of India’s freedom struggle. The Award is given to persons who have significantly contributed to the advance-ment of the country or society across several fields of activity like industry, agriculture, art and media, social awareness, etc with the exception of politics, according to a write-up forwarded by the Delhi based Perfect Relations. Among the past recipients of this Award are J. R. D. Tata, Ratan Tata, Sohrab Godrej, Satyajit Ray, Amitabh Bachhan, Lord Swraj Paul...

Khambatta (right) receiving award from Chaturvedi

Accepting the prestigious award at the hands of the governor of Karnataka, T. N. Chaturvedi, Khambatta acknowledged, "I am deeply honored and humbled... Receiving this prestigious award at this age is an inspiration to accomplish much more. This gives not only me but also my whole team further impetus to lead Rasna to where we want to take it. Rasna is an Indian company for the Indian people. Our endeavor is to make Rasna a part of the life of the common man. We want Rasna to touch the lives of a billion Indians.”

A market leader in the soft drink concentrate sector enjoying 90 percent of the share of the market dominated by multinational players, Khambatta has succeeded in developing the family owned business to a progressive corporate establishment, states the release. Under Khambatta’s control, "the company has developed core strengths in brand salience, consumer understanding led marketing and a distribution network that spans the length and breadth of India.” Exporting to 40 countries across the globe, Rasna has an office in USA and a manufacturing base in UAE. Constantly introducing new products in the market with state of the art vending machines, in the last summer season the company launched its ready-to-drink sachets like Rasna ‘1 ka 2’ and instant drinks in varied flavors including the favorite mosambi (sweet lime) not offered by any competitors.