Meet Areez Khambatta, creator of famous Rasna drinks honoured with Padma Shri 2023

On Wednesday, the government of India declared the list of Padma awards. Among the recipients of the Padma Shri awards, this year is Areez Pirojshaw Khambatta. Areez Khambatta is the man behind Rasna being one of India's most popular beverages. 

Khambatta at the age of 85 passed away on November 21, 2022, due to cardiac arrest in Ahmedabad. Born on September 22, 1937, in Karachi, Punjab province, British India, Khambatta grew up in Karachi with his mother. 

The company began in the 1940s and sold only concentrates and was a business-to-business (B2B) it, later on, went to cater to the business-to-consumer (B2C) market, initially sold under the brand name Jaffe and distributed only within Gujarat. In the late 1970s, Jaffe was relaunched as Rasna.

Areez Khambatta made the brand iconic, which is sold at 1.8 million retail outlets in the country. Rasna is now the world’s largest soft drink concentrate manufacturer.

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He was also the former Chairman of WAPIZ (World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthostis) and past President of Ahmedabad Parsi Panchayat, Vice President of the Federation of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India.