Top 15 Successful Indian Entrepreneurs Stories
SugerMint profiles a list of top Successful Indian Entrepreneurs who made it big from the scratch. The list of Successful Entrepreneurs from India will serve as an inspiration for those hoping to make it big in the entrepreneur world.
All of the Indian entrepreneurs listed below have one thing in common: a clear vision & the determination to succeed and that’s why they are one of the top successful entrepreneurs of India.
Here, we at SugerMint have prepared a list of Successful Indian Entrepreneurs and their contributions to the society who have done something different to boost the Indian economy and inspired other Indian entrepreneurs, who are as follows:
1: Dhirubhai Ambani – Founder of Reliance Industries:
Dhirubhai Ambani (28th December 1932 – 6th July 2002) was the founder of Reliance Industries (1966). Now his sons Mukesh and Anil Ambani are the MD and Chairperson of Reliance Industries.
Headquarter of Reliance Industries is at Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. His son Mukesh took over telecommunications, natural resources, petrochemicals, energy, textiles, and retail business.
Same way Anil took over telecom, finances, power, infrastructure, and entertainment. Reliance Industries Limited is one of the most profitable companies in India.
Reliance is ranked 114th on the fortune Global 500 list of world’s biggest corporations (2014). As per Platts, it is ranked 14th among the top 250 Global Energy Companies.
2: Ratan Tata – Indian entrepreneur and industrialist:
Ratan Tata is an Indian entrepreneur, philanthropist, and industrialist. He was the chairperson of the Tata group from 1991 until his retirement.
He was the chairperson of major Tata companies like Tata Steel, Tata Teleservices, Tata Global Beverages, Tata Motors, Tata Power, Tata Chemicals, etc.
Tata group’s revenues grew manifold that totaling over $100 billion in 2011-12 during his tenure. Tata has achieved global leadership in their business.
For instance, Tata Communications is the number one international wholesale voice provider, the same way Tata steel is among the top fifteen best steelmakers.
TCS is the second largest IT service company in the world. Tata Motors is among the top 10 commercial vehicle manufacturers in the world.
Tata Global Beverages is one of the largest tea company in the world. Tata Chemicals is also the world’s second-largest manufacturer of soda ash.
3: Narayan Murthy – Co-founder of Infosys and Indian billionaire businessman:
Narayan Murthy is the founder of Infosys (1981). Infosys is a global software consulting company from Bangalore.
From 1981 to May 2002 Murthy served as CEO of Infosys and as the Chairperson and Chief Mentor from 1981 to 2011.
As Chairman Emeritus, he served from August 2011 to May 2013. Infosys was listed on NASDAQ in 1999 during his leadership.
He was listed among the 12th greatest entrepreneurs by Fortune magazine in 2012. He was ranked as 10 most-admired global business leaders in 2005.
Narayan Murthy was ranked 13th among CNBC’s 25 global business leaders in 2014 who made maximum impact on society in the last 25 years.
In March 2015 he was ranked among the top 10 of the Financial Times list of “Business pioneers in Technology”.
Narayan Murthy is the first Indian winner of Ernst and Young’s World Entrepreneur of the Year.
Many times he got rankings of businessperson and innovators by Time, CNN, Fortune, Forbs, Business Week, India Today, etc.
4: Azim Premji – chairman of Wipro Limited:
In 1945, Muhammed Hashim Premji, father of Azim Premji incorporated Western Indian Vegetable Products Ltd in Maharashtra.
Western Indian Vegetable Products Ltd used to manufacture laundry soap named 787 and cooking oil called Sunflower Vanaspati.
After the death of Muhammed Hashim Premji, Azim Premji took charge of Wipro Ltd. Azim is a graduate in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, USA.
He has diversified $2 million hydrogenated cooking fat company into close to $ 8 billion Revenue IT, BPO and R&D services organization with 58 countries today.
The overall Wipro group revenues are $ 9 billion. Wipro is a global information technology, outsourcing, and consulting company. They have more than 170,000 workforce serving clients in more than 175 cities across 6 continents.
The company posted revenues of $ 7.7 billion for the financial year 2016. Business Week recognizes Premji as one of the Greatest Entrepreneurs for Wipro emerging as one of the world’s fastest-growing companies.
5: Lakshmi Mittal – Chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of ArcelorMittal:
Lakshmi Mittal was India’s richest person. He slipped in ranking as falling of steel prices due to a global supply glut caused by rising export by China. As per them, the loss was partly due to write-offs in its iron ore mining business.
Arcelor sold its 35% stake in Spanish auto parts maker Gestamp for $1 billion in a bid to reduce its debt. In 2015 its revenue fell 20* reported a net loss of $7.9 billion, a seven-fold rise over the previous year.
It proposed to raise $3 billion to boost its capital. Lakshmi Mittal was not worried about his home country; he is reportedly rethinking plans to build a new steel factory in South Africa.
6: Dr. Verghese Kurien – Social Entrepreneur and Father of the White Revolution (AMUL)
Dr. Kurien was the founder-chairman of GDMMF from 1973 to 2006. The success of Amul is due to him. Amul – Anand Milk Union Limited is an Indian dairy co-operative at Anand, Gujarat.
It formed in 1964. Amul is a brand managed by a co-operative body and 3.6 million milk producers in Gujarat jointly own the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.
GCMMF further developed and managed by Dr. Verghese Kurien and H. M. Dalaya. Dalaya made skimmed milk powder from buffalo milk and little water with the help of Dr. Verghese Kurien that was the first time in the world. They made it on a commercial scale.
7: Anand Mahindra – Indian Entrepreneur and chairman of Mahindra Group:
Anand Mahindra is an Indian entrepreneur, managing director, and chairman of Mahindra Group. His grandfather JC Mahindra was the co-founder of the company in Mumbai, India.
It was founded as a steel trading company but today the group has a presence in multiple sectors from agribusiness to aerospace. In 2011, he was included in ‘world’s 50 greatest leaders’ by Fortune magazine.
Sustainable Development Leadership Award has also noted Anand Mahindra for The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in the year of 2014. He won ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ for 2013 by Forbes India.
8: Shiv Nadar – founder and chairman of HCL
Shiv Nadar was born in Tiruchendur, Tamil Nadu in 1945. In 1967, he started his career at Walchand Group’s Cooper Engineering in Pune. In 1976, he started HCL with an investment of Rs. 187,000 from six founders.
He entered into the international market with the commencement of his Far East Computers in Singapore to sell IT hardware in 1980.
In 1984, Shiv Nadar started personal computer solutions called Busybee and UNIX platform-based solutions. The company started with an auxiliary called HCL office automation.
It became India’s leader in-office solutions. HCL earned the revenue of 100 crores in 1087 and was ranked as India’s no. 1 company.
His daughter, Roshni Nadar Malhotra is a CEO of HCL Technologies. Nadar had amalgamated his business into five companies – HCL Technologies, HCL Infosystems, HCL Comnet, HCL Petrol, and NIIT.
IN 1999, Nadar made HCL Technologies public. HCL was the second-largest IT Company at the time of Initial Public Offering.
9: Jamnalal Bajaj and Rahul Bajaj – Indian industrialist, founder of Bajaj Group:
The Bajaj Group is from the top 10 business groups in India. They are dealing in industries, automobiles (two-wheelers, three-wheelers), home appliances, iron & steel, insurance, finance, travel, etc.
The group’s flagship company is ranked as the world’s fourth-largest two-wheelers and three-wheelers manufacturer.
The Bajaj brand is well-known across several countries. Jamnalal Bajaj was the founder of the company; Bajaj was very close to Mahatma Gandhi.
In 1942, Kamalnayan Bajaj took charge of the business. He consolidated the group but diversified into various manufacturing activities.
In 1965, Rahul Bajaj, the present chairperson of the group took charge of the business. Under his leadership, the turnover of the Bajaj Auto has gone up from INR. 72 million to INR. 120 billion.
He is an Indian entrepreneur and one of India’s most successful business leaders.
10: Sunil Mittal – Indian Entrepreneur and founder and chairman of Bharti Enterprises
Sunil Bharti Mittal is an Indian entrepreneur, Chairman, and Founder of Bharti Enterprises. It has interests in telecom, retail, financial services, agri-products, etc.
Bharti Airtel group of companies is the world’s 3rd largest telecommunication company. It has a customer base with over 300 million customers across South Asia and Africa.
India’s one of the highest civilian awards Padma Bhushan is awarded to Sunil Bharti. He was awarded the INSEAD Business leader for world Award 2011 & NDTV profit business leadership award 2011 for “corporate Conscience”.
US India business council honored him with the ‘Global Vision’ award 2008. He has received the GSM Association Chairman’s award for 2008. The Barron’s Magazine ranked him among the Top 25 Philanthropists in the World in 2009.
11: Bhargav Sri Prakash: Indian entrepreneur and inventor of Digital Vaccine technology
Bhargav Sri Prakash is the son of M. V. Sri Prakash and Sheila Sri Prakash, an architect, urban designer, and artist.
He started his first company CAD Corporation when he was a student at the University of Michigan to commercialize his graduate research in math-based simulations for design automotive powertrain systems.
He founded Vmerse in 2005 after selling CAD Corporation. That was the first market with a gamified 3D simulation platform for college recruiting and alumni relations.
In 2009, he sold it. Again, in 2008, he started an investment fund and asset management company called Nirmana Investments.
He served as a managing director there. In 2011, he was appointed an entrepreneur fellow of Kauffman Foundation to address education and health issue.
12: Subhash Chandra: Chairman of the Essel Group and Indian billionaire media baron
In 1992, Subhash Chandra launched India’s first satellite TV channel, Zee TV. They had a competition with Sony Entertainment Television and Star Plus. Now they have up to 90 channels with 1.3 billion people reach in over 174 countries.
Chandra launches an English daily newspaper DNA in Mumbai with the collaboration of Dainik Bhaskar Group in 2005. Their competition was with Mumbai’s well-settled The Times of India, and it was one of the biggest newspaper battles of Mumbai.
As per the SEBI Listing Regulations, he had to resign as chairperson of Zee Entertainment Enterprises on 25th November 2019. Still, he continues as a non-executive director of the company.
In his autobiography “The Zee factor: My journey as the wrong man at the right time”, Subhash Chandra Goenka wrote about his association with RSS, the ideological parent of BJP at his young age.
13: Gautam Thapar: Former Chairman of the Ananta Aspen Centre and President of Thapar University
Thapar had to turn around the BILT’s chemical division. That was suffering from losses due to a shortage of power and water and labor agitations. He showed profit within a year.
In 1999, the assets of the family were divided into four. He became chairman of Crompton Greaves on 22nd July 2004. He chose Gautam over Vikram when Lalit Mohan Thapar retired.
Lalit Mohan handed over the reins of the business empire to Gautam in 2005 along with shares, voting rights, and most of his personal effects in his will. He became Chairperson of the group in 2006.
He was asked as Chairman of CG Power and Industrial Solutions with immediate effect after an investigation that unearthed a multi crore financial fraud at the firm.
The company had stated that an investigation instituted by its board had found major governance and financial lapses in the company on 20th August 2019.
14: Naveen Jindal: Indian Entrepreneur and Chairman of Jindal Steel and Power Limited
Naveen Jindal is an Indian entrepreneur, industrialist, and the Chairman of Jindal Steel and Power Limited. Now JSPL operates an iron manufacturing plant in Raigarh, Chhattisgarh, & plants in Jharkhand and Odisha.
JSPL has set up captive power pants using waste products from the sponge iron making process to generate power. Naveen Jindal is the Chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Jindal Power Limited.
It runs the 1,000MW O.P. Jindal Thermal Power Plant in Raigarh, Chhattisgarh. Fortune Asia Magazine ranked him amongst Asia’s 25 Hottest People in Business for turning a struggling steel company into An Asian blue-chip giant.
Business Today also ranked him as India’s Best CEO from 1995 to 2011. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) of USA has rated JSPL the Second Highest Value Creator in the world.
15: Naveen Jain: founder and former chief executive officer (CEO) of InfoSpace
Naveen Jain founded InfoSpace in March 1996 with six employees. Most of them were from Microsoft, they began developing e-mail and telephone directories.
Infospace provided content and services like phone directories, maps, games, etc. Infospace grew at a low cost. It went public on 15th December 1998.
They raised $75 million in the offering. He began purchasing expensive homes and yatches. He owned 47% of Infospace’s stock.
In an investigation board found Jain may have failed to fulfil his contractual promises for stock options to seven former employees and eight business partners.
He alleged the deals were set up such that their shares would not vest until they have been an employee for a year.
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We hope, the list of Successful Indian Entrepreneurs hopefully will inspire you through your entrepreneurial journey and will keep you inspired.