Successful entrepreneurs of India
This article is dedicated to the some of the most successful entrepreneurs of India whose success story will inspire you. The path to name and fame wasn’t easy for them.
Indian economy has been growing rapidly over the past few decades. India has produced a number of successful entrepreneurs.
Approximately 11% to 15% of the Indians are engaged in entrepreneurial activities. And only 5% to 10% of these entrepreneurs actually went on to establish their venture. At present, People are choosing entrepreneurship. Not everyone succeeds as an entrepreneur.
List of Successful entrepreneurs of India
Here is a notable list of successful entrepreneurs in India barring the big names such as Mukesh Ambani, Baba Kalyani, Radhe Shyam Agarwal, Nikesh Arora, Karsanbhai Patel, Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Dilip Shanghvi, Namit Bajoria, Anil Agarwal, Bhupendrabhai Shah.
1. Mukesh Ambani, Indian entrepreneur, MD of Reliance Industries Ltd & Billionaire Business Magnate
Born on 19th April 1957 in Yemen. Mukesh Ambani is one of the successful entrepreneurs in India.
He is a managing director and chairperson of Reliance Industries Ltd, a Fortune 500 company. He holds a 44.7% stake in Reliance Limited.
Dhirubhai Ambani allowed him to contribute with little experience and treated Mukesh as a business partner.
In 2012, Forbes magazine named him one of the richest sports owners. As of 2016, he was ranked 38, ranked 18th wealthiest person in the world by Forbs magazine in January 2018. He was the richest man in Asia until 2020.
Ambani is the largest shareholder and billionaire business magnate. He married to Nita Ambani. They have a daughter Isha and two sons, Anant and Akash.
2. Baba Kalyani: Managing Director and Chairman of Bharat Forge
Born on 7 January 1949 in a Lingayat family. His father Mr. Neelakanth Kalyani is a Pune-based automotive component maker and technocrat. Kalyani owned the first car, modest Fiat 1100 at the age of 14. Baba Kalyani was 14 years old when he began car driving.
Kalyani obtained a BE (Hons.) in Mechanical Engineering. He joined Bharat Forge, a global manufacturing company in 1972.
Kalyani is also engaged in the manufacturing of solar energy equipment. He is the founder of the Pratham Foundation, engaged in providing primary education. Baba Kalyani received the Padma Bhushan award for contributions to Trade and Industry.
3. Radhe Shyam Agarwal, co-founder of Emami Group
Born in a Marwari family on 18th February 1946 in Kolkata. Known as R S Agrawal. He was listed by Forbs in 2015 as having a net worth of $1.43 billion.
He is among the top 100 richest person in India. He obtained his LLB &M.Com degree from Calcutta University.
In 1974, Agrawal & his school friend Radhe Shyam Goenka borrowed money from Goenka’s father and started a cosmetics company named Emami.
Today, Emami has more than 300 products including Boroplus, antiseptic cream and Zandu balm. He is a successful entrepreneurs of India.
4. Nikesh Arora: CEO and Chairperson of Palo Alto Networks
Nikesh was born in Indian Air Force officer’s family on 9th February 1968. Nikesh Arora is a successful entrepreneurs of India and the CEO, chairperson of Palo Alto Networks. He served as the president of SoftBank Group. He was also senior executive at Google.
5. Karsanbhai Patel – founder of the Nirma group
Karsanbhai Patel, known as KK Patel is a founder of the Nirma group. He was born into a farmer family at Ruppur village, Mehsana, Gujarat in 1945. He has sound knowledge of chemicals.
He started detergent business in the 10x12ft room and selling handmade detergent powder door-to-door on his bicycle.
He was selling his detergent powder and cake at very low price. The high quality and low price of the detergent made for a great value.
His low-price brand sparked a detergent war with big brands including Surf by Hindustan Lever, Procter & Gamble, and other brands.
Karsanbhai Patel branded his detergent soap and detergent powder Nirma, after the name of his daughter Nirupama. Patel lost his daughter Nirupama in a car accident.
Today Nirma has an overall 20% market share in soap cakes. It has 35% of market share in detergents powder.
Nirma Group is one of the largest soda ash manufacturers in the world. Forbes magazine listed his net worth as the US $3.9 billion.
As far as corporate social responsibility (CSR) is concerned, Karsanbhai Patel runs Nirma Memorial Trust, Nirma Foundation, and Nirma University.
Today Nirma has a turnover of more than $ 500 million and more than 15 thousand people. Karsanbhai Patel also owns six-seater chopper. He is listed under successful entrepreneurs of India.
6. Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Founder of Naukri dot com
Sanjeev Bikhchandani is the founder of Naukri.com, India’s Biggest Online Job Portal. He has been awarded the Padma Shri in 2020.
He grew in a middle-class family. He wanted to work for a while after graduation and wanted to do some big work. Sanjeev obtained his BA degree from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi.
Sanjeev took a job at Lintas in 1984 as an Accounts Executive and worked for three years.
He left Lintas in 1987. Sanjeev completed his MBA from Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM Ahmedabad) in 1989.
In 1989, Sanjeev joined GlaxoSmithKline (known as Hindustan Milkfood Manufacturers – HMM) as a product executive at a campus placement event. He wanted to do business and Sanjeev did not satisfy with his secure job.
In 1990, Sanjeev Bikchandani left his secure and well-paying job and started Info Edge (India) and Indmark with his friend from his small room.
Sanjeev Bikhchandani launched Naukri.com in 1997. In fact, it was a database of resume, employers, recruitment consultants, jobs, and candidates.
Today, Naukri.com is one of the largest recruitment platforms in India with value at over Rs 85,760 crore.
Sanjeev Bikhchandani also owns some of the popular websites like Firstnaukri, Brijj, Naukrigulf.com, Jeevansathi.com, 99acres.com, Quadrangle and Shiksha.com as well.
Not only that, the company has also invested in many other big corporates such as Upliftment, Zomato, PolicyBazaar, Vacation Labs etc.
7. Dilip Shanghvi, Founder of Sun Pharmaceutical
Dilip Shanghvi is a self-made and one of the most successful entrepreneurs in India. He is the founder of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries. He was born in Jain Bania family on 1 October 1955 at the small town of Amreli in Gujarat.
He spent his childhood and college life in the Calcutta. His father was a wholesale drug distributor.
He did graduation at Bhawanipur Education Society College and received his Bcom degree from the University of Calcutta.
He established a Sun Pharmaceuticals in 1982 at Vapi city in Gujarat with a two-man marketing team and five products with the capital of INR 10,000.
Sun Pharmaceutical is one of the largest chronic prescription company in India and the largest Indian pharma company in the US. Sun Pharma is the fifth-largest specialty generics company globally.
Dilip Shanghvi has been appointed as India’s 21-member central board committee of the Reserve Bank by the government of India.
Dilip Shanghvi is one of the country’s richest people, chairperson of the board of governors at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay – IIT Bombay.
8. Namit Bajoria, Founder of Kutchina Home Makers
Born in a typical Marwadi family. Namit Bajoria is a successful entrepreneurs of India and founder of Kutchina Home Makers Pvt Ltd, leading kitchen Appliance Company in India.
Namit started taking small steps towards his entrepreneurial journey. Before starting Kutchina, Namit worked as a marketing executive in telecommunication and CA firms to get some experience.
Namit borrowed Rs 1.30 lakh from his father to start his own photocopy agency business. He did not run for long. Then he started importing auto-clean chimney from Vietnam, Germany, Japan, China, and other countries.
In 2003, Namit shifted business from the import to local manufacturing model and founded Kutchina Home Makers Pvt Ltd to provide a one-stop shop for kitchen solutions specifically designed for Indian kitchens.
Kutchina Homes is offering complete kitchen solutions including small kitchen tools, kitchen chimneys, large home appliances, RO, Hobs, Mixer Grinder, Modular Kitchen under one roof. Today, Namit has generated Rs 300 crore in revenue.
9. Anil Agarwal: Founder and Chairman of Vedanta Resources
Anil Agarwal is one of the most successful entrepreneurs of India. Born on 24th January 1954 in the lower-middle-class Marwari family in Patna, Bihar. His father had a small aluminum conductor business. The financial condition of his family was not that strong.
Anil left Patna for Mumbai to build an empire in copper, aluminum, zinc, and iron and explore career opportunities at the age of 19. He started his entrepreneurial journey as a scrap dealer.
Anil Agarwal founded Hamsher Sterling Corporation with a bank loan In 1976. The company is the manufacturer of enameled copper, iron, zinc, and other products.
Hamsher Sterling Corporation deals in the Industrial sector. In 1986 he started jelly-filled cables manufacturing and set up Sterlite Industries.
In 1993, Sterlite Industries became the 1st private sector company in India to set up a refinery. Then he founded Vedanta Resources and developed.
Vedanta Resources Limited is a leading natural resources company in India. The company extract and process oil, minerals, and gas.
In 1995, Sterlite Industries acquired Madras Aluminium. Anil Agarwal acquired a 51% in Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO) and acquired a 65% stake in state-run HZL (Hindustan Zinc Limited).
Today, Vedanta Resources Limited engages 65,000+ employees and contractors, primarily in India, Australia, Ireland and Africa.
10. Bhupendrabhai Shah – founder of Hipolin
Bhupendrabhai Shah is a successful entrepreneur of India. He founded Hipolin with main activities in detergent powder, soaps, salt, liquid detergent, toilet cleaner, and washing powder.
Born on 12th December 1939 in a small village Thasra, Kheda, Gujarat to middle-class family. He completed his B.sc, M.sc and cleared his masters in Chemistry. College, Anand, Gujarat form Vallabh Vidyanagar.
He started his entrepreneurial journey from a small room and selling detergent powder and soaps in neighbourhood-to-neighbourhood and door-to-door.
After completing his graduation, Shah shifted to Ahmedabad and join the Ramkrishna Mills as a chemist.
Then he joined Laxmi Cotton Mills and Monogram Mills, worked as chief chemist at until 1966.
After this, he started his own washing powder manufacturing business in Ahmedabad in a 2-room rented house.
They started their first own manufacturing unit of brand ‘Hipolin’ at Ramol, Ahmedabad, India on 13th August 1970. ‘Hipolin’ is a name of Japanese fibre.
The catchy jingle—“Hipolin…. Hipolin…. washing powder hipolin, mel ka dusman tagda, chamkaye har kapda”, became an instant hit.
He was active as a Chairperson at ‘Hipolin Limited’ at the age of 80 years. Because of pandemic COVID-19, he took temporary retirement.
He was undergoing corona treatment, admitted at Shalby Hospital, Ahmedabad for 2 days. He suffered a cardiac arrest. He passed away on April 8, 2021 after a short battle with corona.
We hope you find the inspiring success story of successful entrepreneurs of India, useful and inspiring through your entrepreneurial journey and will keep you inspired.
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