A young woman with business talent, Nishtha has made her mark in all facets of artistic endeavours in addition to running the family business.

Nishtha Kataria is a Food technologist and production and marketing head at Kataria Food Innovators in Udaipur.

Nishtha was born in Andhra Pradesh but brought up in the city of lakes, Udaipur. She completed a B.Tech. in Food Technology from the College of Dairy & Food Science in Udaipur. Nishtha then did an internship with Amul and worked at an export firm for six months in Ahmedabad.

Recalling her childhood, Nishtha says that her maternal side of the family hails from Vijayanagar, Visakhapatnam. She reminisces about the good old childhood memories of visiting the place on vacation, playing with the sea waves and sands, etc. She recalls her shy and studious self and feels grateful for her schooling, which made her a visionary and ambitious young girl. She had been an all-round student with good academics and equal participation in public speaking, sports, art, and crafts. She was a good dancer, a district-level volleyball player, and a table tennis enthusiast. All these colourful experiences transformed her from an introvert into an extrovert.

Talking about her journey, Nishtha says that she always had a passion for doing something of her own; hence, she joined her brother’s food processing business. She joined the business in 2019 and has been successfully applying all her learning to her work. Apart from the business, she invests in creative prospects like digital marketing and fashion modelling.

Nishtha’s family business deals with manufacturing different varieties of fruit bars from kiwis, mangoes, lychees, etc. They also manufacture fruit katlis and fruit rolls. Sugar-free bars are also produced by them for patients with diabetes. Nishtha’s family business has been running for the last seven years and has been successful in producing vegan, high-fibre, gluten-free, and healthy snack options. The business has grown manifold from Udaipur to nationwide. They have eighty distributors covering 120 cities. For the last two years, her company has been exporting to Australia and the UAE. The response in terms of taste and quality has been exceptionally positive. Nishtha’s vision for her business is to make it the most recognizable healthy snack brand. Moreover, they have an e-commerce website called "Flavours of Rajasthan" for selling exquisite ‘Aam Papads’.

When asked about her challenges, Nishtha says that when she joined her family business, she faced the challenge of understanding the marketing and sales parts of the work. The other struggles are managing a small staff of ten, team building, team management, finding good employees, creating fresh demand, and picking up speed in post-covid times. Although COVID had put a break on her work pace and confidence, her family supported her well, and the saved funds helped the company survive some of the worst days. She supports other local businesses and female entrepreneurs in launching their brands and products.

Talking about leadership, Nishtha feels that "leadership is a responsibility". Leaders should create other leaders and work towards team building. Her style of leadership is free and subtle. She likes to understand the team members and grow along with them.

If given a time machine, Nishtha would like to relive her college days, which were full of beautiful memories.

Nishtha has many role models, primarily her parents, who have taught her to work hard and work smart. She also admires Indra Nooyi and Priyanka Chopra, whose journeys inspire her. She is greatly inspired by personalities who have made it from scratch without any contacts or relevant backgrounds. She learned to be optimistic and positive about her vision.

Nishtha advises everyone to avoid self-doubt and fear of failure, as these are the biggest obstacles to growth and success. She advises being positive and maintaining self-belief.

Nishtha’s favourite book is ‘The Power of Your Subconscious Mind’ because it helps her develop and create a positive and powerful mindset.

Advising aspirants in her field, Nishtha feels that the food industry has a lot of growth potential, as India is the biggest producer of food. The scope for expansion of value-added products with the support of government programmes is massive. She advises understanding the need of the hour, creating interesting products, focusing on quality, taste, and nutritional value, and facilitating organic farming.

In her free time, Nishtha loves to play table tennis, invest in fashion styling and modelling projects, follow a healthy lifestyle, and exercise. She loves travelling and aspires to become a social media influencer.