East India Company back in Business, owned by an Indian Entrepreneur Sanjiv Mehta

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East India Company back in Business, owned by an Indian Entrepreneur:
It reminds me TV advertisement of “Rajnigandha pan masala” in which an Indian entrepreneur, driving on streets of London, in search of a Company to buy, suddenly spots the East India Company. That reminds him about the British raj. He takes a spoonful of Rajnigandha and then asks the driver to pull back.

Stopping before the company he tells his assistant, “Mujhe yehi company kharedni hai.” When she(an assistant) expresses her doubts he says, “Inhone hum par do sau saal tak raj kiya, ab hamari bari hai.” He gets the company and treats the ex-owners to Rajnigandha.

Well it was fun and proud watching that advertisement, I never thought this can really happen! But nothing is impossible, Sanjiv Mehta, a Mumbai-born entrepreneur who completed the process of buying the East India Company in 2005. Sanjiv Mehta acquired the company in 2005 and has since invested $15 million.

East India Company, established in 1600, owned by a group of merchants with one and only purpose of trading in India and other neighboring countries. The company ruled India for more than 200 years.The East India Company traded mainly in cotton, silk, indigo dye, saltpetre, tea, and opium.

After the Indian revolution of 1857 known to us as the “First War of Independence”, British government nationalized the Company and as a penalty, the Company lost all its administrative powers; its Indian possessions. The East India Company also lost its armed forces, which were taken over by the Crown pursuant to the provisions of the Government of India Act 1858. The Company continued to manage the tea trade on behalf of the British government, until the East India Stock Dividend Redemption Act came into effect, on 1 January 1874, under the terms of which the Company was dissolved. The trading name of the company continued to exist, owned by the British Government Treasury.

In 1974, the company was reestablished by a group of private investors, focusing on Tea and Coffee retail.

Since its dissolution in 1874, a small part of the East India Company survived into a brand name and a small tea and coffee trade. In August 2010, Sanjiv Mehta, an India-born man based in Britain, bought the remnants of the company and plans to use it to sell fine food and luxury goods. The East India Company was owned by almost 30-40 people before Sanjiv Mehta owned it.