Internet entrepreneur Lopa Patel, who founded the website Redhotcurry.com, is being awarded an MBE by the Queen, according to the Birthday Honours List 2009. The MBE will be for her services to the creative industries.

She said: “For me it marks that start of a new chapter in giving back to business and the community. Expectations among my family and friends are high – I know that they are looking to see what I can do next in raising the profile of the Asian community in Britain, getting more women-owned businesses off the ground and in helping young Asians feel proud to be British.”