Three Generations, One Material: The Vadodara Family Behind Naman Agarwal's Polymer Journey
In 1980, when India was searching for answers to its water crisis, Shri Balchand Saraogi brought water tank extrusion technology from Germany to India. The achievement earned him the Rashtrapati Award and placed his family at the start of the country's modern plastics story.
More than four decades later, that story continues in Vadodara through Naman Agarwal, the third generation of the family in polymers.
The first generation: a problem worth solving
Water storage was a daily difficulty for Indian households in those years. The plastic water tank, light, clean and affordable, changed that. Bringing the technology to make it was an act of industrial imagination as much as commerce, and it set the tone for everything the family did afterwards: find a real need, then build the capability to meet it.
The builders
The generations before Naman did more than run businesses. They helped organise the industry itself, holding senior positions in the Gujarat Plastic Association, the Halol Plastic Association and the rPET Traders Association. Their reputation was built on a simple rule: a trader's word is his bond.
The inheritor
Naman Agarwal added formal training to that inheritance. After graduating from IIM Ahmedabad, he returned to the family's field and took it in a new direction: recycled PET.
Today he is Director of Mansha Tradecom OPC Pvt. Ltd., working across rPET flake, PET bottle scrap and HDPE, with trade links to Yemen, the UAE and China. He is also founder of Orama Techno Labs, based in California, USA.
A name that remembers
The brand ORAMA holds a quiet tribute. Its letter M stands for his late father, Shri Manmohan Agarwal. It is also why many in Vadodara know him by his full name, Naman Manmohan Agarwal.
"My father taught me that material can be bought anywhere, but trust has to be earned every single day. Everything we build carries his name inside it." — Naman Agarwal
The next generation's promise
The family's first chapter helped India store water. Its current one helps India recover plastic. Alongside the business, Naman supports the education and welfare of 200 girls through the Man-mohana Charitable Trust for Underprivileged Girls and Children.
For a family that has spent three generations with one material, the direction is clear: the future of polymers is circular, and Vadodara intends to be part of it.