East India Company reborn on I-Day eve
14 Aug 2010
The East India Company, the world's first multinational company, is reborn after 400 years. Sanjiv Mehta, an India-born Briton is relaunching it on Independence Day-eve.
Sanjiv Mehta, who bought the remnants of the once-mighty British East India Company in 2005, is re-launching it on Saturday after 135 years of its dissolution. Mehta is opening a luxury food store in Mayfair, London, which he says would eventually take the company to India once again.
"The project was not simply a commercial venture - there was an emotional connection too. It is a dream come true to build a business like this and to acquire a brand like this to own the company," BBC quoted Mehta as saying.
The British East India Company was dissolved in 1854 and a small part of the joint stock company survived to trade in tea and coffee under the East India Company brand name.
While Mehta acknowledged the emotional connection, he dismissed fears that name would open up colonial era wounds and said instead many of his Indian friends have supported him in this venture.
He said there was an indirect joy for Indians in an India-born buying out a company that haunted their ancestors for a couple of centuries in the past.
