Daijiworld Media Network - Jaipur

Jaipur, Apr 23: Shiv Ratan Agarwal, Chairman and Managing Director of Bikaji Foods International, died in Chennai on Thursday after suffering a heart attack. He was 74.

According to sources, Agarwal had travelled to Chennai with his family for his wife’s medical treatment. She had recently undergone heart bypass surgery and had been advised rest, following which the family was staying at a hotel in the city during her recovery.

Sources said Agarwal began feeling unwell around 7.30 am and was rushed to a private hospital, where doctors declared him dead.

Agarwal founded the Bikaji brand in Bikaner and built it into one of India’s leading packaged snack companies.

The company traces its origins to Shivdeep Foods Products, named after his son Deepak Agarwal, which later evolved into the Bikaji brand.

Following a division in the family business associated with Haldiram’s, Agarwal chose an independent path and moved to Bikaner, where he began a bhujia manufacturing venture under Shivdeep Foods Products.

The enterprise laid the foundation for what would later emerge as a major player in India’s snack industry.

In 1993, the company was rebranded as Bikaji, inspired by Rao Bika, founder of Bikaner, giving the brand a strong regional identity that later gained national and global recognition.

Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot expressed grief over Agarwal’s demise.

“The news of the sudden passing of the country’s renowned industrialist and Chief Managing Director of Bikaji, Shiv Ratan Agarwal, is deeply saddening,” Gehlot said in a post on X.

He said Agarwal had brought fame to Bikaner’s bhujia in India and abroad through the Bikaji brand, and described his death as an irreparable loss.

Agarwal is widely credited with transforming a modest regional food business into a nationally recognised packaged foods brand.