The National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) now has a new president as Riyaaz Amlani had to step down from the position due to health reasons. Riyaaz is recovering from a spinal surgery and has been advised three months of complete rest by doctors. Given this situation, Rahul Singh, who was the vice-president of NRAI, and has been the spokesperson for the restaurants’ body in Riyaaz’s absence, will take over as the president. Before being announced as the vice-president of NRAI in October, Rahul was the honorary secretary of NRAI and represented the organisation at many meetings when SC had banned the sale of alcohol within 500 meters of state and national highways.

Before the formal announcement about the change by NRAI, restaurateur Priyank Sukhija wrote in a FB post, “NRAI as an organisation has grown bigger and stronger in the past few years achieving numerous milestones under the talented leadership of Riyaaz Amlani, who, sadly for all of us today, stepped down as the president of NRAI due to personal reasons. The new torchbearer of our organisation is now the very capable Rahul Singh and although he has some big shoes to fill in, I am sure nobody else in the room can do better than him.” Sources say that Riyaaz will continue to closely work as part of the organisation when he recovers.

“While Riyaaz needs to rest to heal, and we pray for his speedy recovery, I would like to assure him of my relentless quest in accomplishing the tasks at hand to make our industry vibrant and proud,” said Rahul.