Swasti Cashew Industries
Swasti Cashew Industries Private Limited is acknowledged in the centenary documentary film of the Karnataka Cashew Manufacturers Association titled The Cashew Story: 100 Years of Craftsmanship & Resilience, produced to mark a century of organised cashew processing in Mangaluru (1925–2025).
The documentary premiered at the Kaju Centennial Summit on 17 November 2025 and may be viewed on the official KCMA YouTube channel:
In 2025, the Karnataka Cashew Manufacturers' Association convened the Kaju Centennial Summit to mark a century of organised cashew manufacturing in Karnataka. Among those recognised was Shri Sujir Damodar Nayak, co-founder and Managing Director of Swasti Cashew Industries Private Limited, honoured posthumously for his lifetime contribution to the cashew industry.
The award acknowledged what the archive has always shown: that SDN was not merely a successful manufacturer but an industry builder — someone who helped create the institutional and commercial foundations on which Karnataka's cashew industry stands. The recognition was received by his family, who carry the company he founded into its Platinum Jubilee year.
| Period | Role / Recognition |
|---|---|
| 1955–1972 | Founding Secretary, Mangalore Cashew Manufacturers' Association (now Karnataka Cashew Manufacturers Association — KCMA). Served 1955–1972 — seventeen years, the longest-serving inaugural Secretary in the Association's history. His portrait appears first in KCMA's published Secretary record (2025 centenary book). Swasti Cashew Industries Private Limited was founding subscriber No. 3, signed 23 June 1955. |
| c.1955–65 | Committee Member, Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Bunder, Mangaluru. Through this role, nominated as Trustee of the Mangalore Port Trust — serving four years overseeing Mangalore's development as a major export port. |
| c.1950s–60s | Treasurer, South Kanara Village Industries Association. Service to village-level industries under the Village Industries Board, Government of India. |
| c.1960s | Member, Administration Committee, Cashew Export Promotion Council, Cochin. |
| 1961 | Selected by the CEPC Chairman as one of two national delegates for India's cashew trade mission to the Far East. Travelled to Thailand, Singapore, Japan and Europe. |
| c.1960s | Member, Coffee Board, Bangalore. Propaganda Department and Sub Council of Exporters advising on International Trade, New Delhi. |
| 1961–62 | President, Mangalore Coffee and Produce Merchants' Association. |
| 1962 | Third-largest coffee exporter in India by value. Annual cashew and CNSL turnover Rs. 30 lakhs. |
Shri Kochikar Sudhakara Pai, the current Managing Director of Swasti Cashew Industries, served as Joint Secretary of the MCMA — now the Karnataka Cashew Manufacturers Association — the same body that Shri Sujir Damodar Nayak helped found and led for seventeen years.
Shri Divakar Pai Kochikar, Executive Director, currently serves as Vice-President of the Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Bunder, Mangaluru — the same institution through which Shri Sujir Damodar Nayak served the industry six decades earlier. The family's commitment to Mangaluru's commercial life is unbroken across generations.