Bharat Entrepreneurs

Can you imagine a man with absolutely no money whatsoever going on to establish an empire worth over $525 million?

Well that is exactly what Mr. Raunaq Singh did. This is the true story of a man who came to India as a refugee after the Partition of India and started selling steel tubes, first on a bicycle and later from a small shop in Kolkata. Mr. Singh was an industrialist who took an early lead and built an empire from scratch.

That was a time when he could afford only a single paise a day for his meals, yet 40 years later he would go on to employ over 9,000 candidates directly and another 20,000 indirectly.

Mr. Raunaq Singh laid the foundation of his tyre manufacturing empire about 40 years ago and set the stage for India to become a major tyre producer. As a doyen of the business community in northern India as well as due to his expertise in the automotive sector, the Government decided to appoint him as the first chairman of Maruti Limited. He has also held senior positions in the Exim Bank, Export Credit Guarantee Corporation and the Indo-German Consultative Group.

Raunaq Singh’s corporate journey from Lahore to New Delhi, first as a steel tube merchant, then as a steel tubes manufacturer and finally as the founder of Apollo Tyres, has been the stuff of corporate folklore.

He started his corporate journey without a pedigree, higher education or money, essential ingredients for success in corporate India, making it possible for ordinary folks to dream big. He was among the first post-partition breed of businessmen who came to India after the creation of Pakistan with nothing to fall on.

Born on August 16,1922, at Daska in Pakistan, Raunaq Singh learnt the elementary lessons of business skills while being employed as a salesman of a steel pipes merchant in Lahore earning Rs 8 a month — a princely amount in those times. The seeds of entrepreneurship were planted when Raunaq Singh cashed in on an opportunity thrown up by the dearth of waterpipes in the areas around Lahore. The profits he, thus , earned were ploughed back in the form of setting up his own business in steel pipes.

ACHIEVEMENTS:

• He was president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), Punjab and Haryana Chamber, Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association and the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO).
• He was chairman of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, Engineering Export Promotion Council and various joint business councils.
• He was also a member of the executive board of the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce for three years.
• The Apollo group of companies includes Bharat Gears, Raunaq International, Raunaq Automotive Components and Menarini Raunaq Pharma and has over 9,000 employees.

His son Kanwar Onkar Singh took over as the chairman of the Apollo Tyres when Mr. Raunaq Singh became chairman emeritus of the group.

Raunaq Singh died on September 30, 2002.

On that day, India lost a charismatic first generation entrepreneur.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Popularity: 22%

Manju Jalota was the head of the department of Geography in St. Francis College, Lucknow. She gave up her job to get involved in the traditional crafts. Her job as a teacher was pretty satisfying but it proved to be a very time consuming job.  She always had something to do like motivating her class to perform better in the X class or had to deal with the hectic schedule during Board exams. Her career as a teacher spanned nearly 18 years before she decided to ditch it in order to pursue her entrepreneurial dreams.

Near Manju’s house in Lucknow, there was a village from where poor Muslim women would search asking for jobs. As Manju’s daughter was about to get married, she employed some of these women to work on an apparel for her daughter. The result was heartening and held a lot of potential. Heeding to the advice of her daughter’s friends, she held an exhibition at the Maurya Sheraton Hotel in New Delhi where the works of these women were displayed and the response was very encouraging.

For the next two years she tried balancing her school work with her new found passion. Later she was confident enough to resign from her job and concentrated full time promoting traditional crafts of chikankari and zardosi.

She eliminated middle men by giving a fair price to these skilled craft works and that too in a timely and secure way. Slowly she secured the confidence of her people and her label Alankrit now has under its umbrella nearly 40 villages and brings food to many craftsmen by employing them. Her business model is very sound. Generally it takes a person nearly 6 to 8 months to finish a chikan sari, but Manju expedites the process by employing upto 6 women on a single sari and gets the work done in just a week. This way, the employees get paid weekly and saris get delivered quickly. A win win situation for both parties.

Manju’s motto in life is “to keep doing new things”

Manju Jalota won the Outstanding Women Entrepreneur Award of the Federation of Indian Chambers for Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in 2002-2003. Because of her many muslim women are now able to live a dignified and empowered life. India needs more entrepreneurs like her.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Popularity: 17%