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On 23 April 2026, Shiv Ratan Agarwal, founder, chairman, and managing director of Bikaji Foods International, died of a massive heart attack at the age of 74 in Chennai.

He and his family had come to Chennai on Thursday morning to get his wife a heart bypass done and had gone to stay in a hotel when he complained that something was not right in him. He was taken to the hospital, where he could not be saved.

Agarwal had founded Bikaji as a small family-run namkeen company in Bikaner and developed it into a major national and international packaged ethnic snacks company. His abrupt death has rocked the FMCG sector and created a gap in the world of entrepreneurship in Rajasthan.

Members of the political leadership, businessmen and women, and those who loved the legendary brand Bikaji bhujia have been expressing commiserations.