The Man Behind Jigger: Anubhav Khanna’s Mission to Put Indian Spirits on the Global Map

For Anubhav Khanna, entrepreneurship did not begin with a business plan. It began with a question.

A question about India, identity, ambition, and why a country with one of the world's oldest drinking cultures had never created an Indian spirit that truly commanded global attention.

Today, Anubhav is building an answer.

For more than three years, he has been building Jigger, India's first Ready-to-Serve shots brand, alongside his co-founder Jashan. But the journey to Jigger began much earlier-in Srinagar, through an unpredictable childhood, years of academic discipline, strategy consulting across North America, government work during COVID, and venture building in Silicon Valley.

"Every chapter was someone else's mission. Jigger is mine."

That sentence perhaps captures Anubhav's journey better than anything else.

Growing Up With Uncertainty

Growing up in Srinagar in the 1990s meant learning early that certainty could never be taken for granted.

"There were times we'd go to bed not knowing if school would open the next day-or the next whole month."

That uncertainty left Anubhav with a perspective that would quietly shape every decision that followed: life is short, and if you're going to spend it doing something, it should matter.

That belief found another layer at The Lawrence School, Sanawar, an institution known for its military-academy-like discipline. Its motto-"Never give in"-became more than a school philosophy. It became a personal one.

The combination of urgency and discipline would become the foundation of his professional life.

He went on to work as a strategy management consultant across the United States and Canada, tackling complex healthcare problems and helping organizations rethink systems at scale. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he contributed to Canada's government response. Later, in Silicon Valley, he helped build new ventures at a SoftBank-backed unicorn focused on children's mental health.

Different industries. Different challenges. Different geographies.

But the motivation remained remarkably consistent.

Impact.

When a Question Became a Mission

Then came an article that changed the direction of his career.

Its premise was simple: Why isn't India known for its alcohol?

The question stayed with him.

India has an ancient drinking culture, a vast diversity of flavours, and a growing global appetite for Indian products. Yet, according to Anubhav, no Indian spirit had truly become a globally recognised symbol of Indian craftsmanship.

He saw an opportunity-not simply to launch another alcohol brand, but to create something that could change the way Indian alcobev was experienced.

He partnered with Jashan, his co-founder, and together they began building Jigger.

The idea was deliberately different: Ready-to-Serve shots designed around Indian tastes and the way India celebrates.

Jigger wasn't simply another product entering an established market. It was an attempt to create a new category within Indian alcobev.

"The anti-alcohol, alcohol."

It was a bold proposition-and building it from scratch required an entirely different kind of commitment.

The Flight That Changed His Perspective

Anubhav does not describe his life in terms of struggle.

"I don't really believe in the word struggle. Everything that feels hard is just growth wearing an uncomfortable disguise."

Yet there is one experience he remembers vividly.

After working intensely through college in the United States, completing a triple major and graduating in the top one percent of his class, Anubhav had achieved what he had been working toward: a career in strategy consulting.

Then, a little over a year into the job, his H-1B visa was denied.

Everything suddenly stopped.

He had sixty days to leave the country and figure out what came next.

The news arrived at perhaps the most surreal moment possible.

Anubhav discovered that his visa had been denied while boarding a flight. By chance, he had been upgraded to seat 1A.

Alone at the front of the cabin, he had ninety minutes at 30,000 feet to process what had happened.

No immediate solution. No distraction. No escape.

Just him and the news.

What emerged from that moment was not panic, but perspective.

"The discipline of calm."

For Anubhav, calm does not mean passivity. It means remaining anchored when circumstances are pushing you toward panic.

That mindset became one of his most important personal tools.

Instead of allowing the deadline to define him, he focused on what could be done next. He found a consulting opportunity in Canada, rebuilt his professional path, and continued forward.

Looking back, he now sees that visa denial differently.

Losing something he had worked so hard to achieve taught him that external milestones-a job title, a visa stamp, even a country-cannot define a person.

What matters is what you do when those things are taken away.

That lesson continues to influence the way he approaches Jigger.

When something doesn't go according to plan, he returns to the same philosophy:

This is growth. Stay calm. Keep going.

Building Beyond the Bottle

Jigger's next chapter is about scale-but not scale for its own sake.

The company is expanding into more Indian states, with three new states already in the pipeline. New SKUs are also being developed, designed to remain rooted in Indian taste while fitting naturally into the way India celebrates.

Beyond India, international expansion is beginning to take shape, with the Indian diaspora providing an important starting point.

But for Anubhav, the larger ambition goes far beyond distribution numbers.

The goal is to build something that makes India proud on a global stage.

A spirit the world knows by name.

Not in spite of being Indian.

Because it is Indian.

"That's the only plan worth having."

Milestones That Matter

For Anubhav, some achievements carry particular meaning-not simply because of the recognition they brought, but because of what each one represents.

The first is building India's first Ready-to-Serve shots brand from scratch and, in doing so, creating a category that previously did not exist in Indian alcobev.

The second came in 2026, when Anubhav was recognised with the Outstanding Leader in Beverage Industry Innovation award at the Bharat 2.0 Conclave. The recognition came less than a year after Jigger's first launch, making the moment especially significant.

Then came a feature in Spiritz Magazine, one of India's respected alcobev publications, under the headline "A Spirit for India." For Anubhav, the title captured the larger philosophy behind Jigger.

He was also invited onto the Times of India Business Icons Podcast, joining entrepreneurs who have built some of India's most recognisable businesses and sharing Jigger's story with a wider audience.

And perhaps one of the most tangible milestones was Jigger's expansion across five Indian states in its first year of operation, with three more on the way.

In an industry where distribution can be one of the toughest battles, every new state represents more than geography.

It represents progress.

The Mission Ahead

Anubhav's story is ultimately not about alcohol.

It is about the courage to question what already exists-and the conviction to build what doesn't.

From a childhood shaped by uncertainty in Srinagar to classrooms defined by discipline, from North American consulting rooms to Silicon Valley ventures, and finally to the creation of Jigger, his career has followed a consistent thread: find problems that matter, stay calm when the answers aren't obvious, and keep moving.

Jigger is now entering its next phase.

More states. More products. New markets. A bigger ambition.

But underneath all of it remains the same question that started the journey:

Why shouldn't the world know India for its spirits?

Anubhav Khanna intends to find out.

And perhaps, in building Jigger, he is not simply creating a beverage brand.

He is attempting to give India a spirit worthy of being known by the world.