Subroto Roy Biography

About Subrata Roy

Subrata Roy Sahara is an Indian businessman who was born on 10 June 1948 at Araria (40 km. north to Poornia, Bihar). He is the chairman and Managing Worker of the Sahara Group of companies based in India fondly known as the “Sahara India Pariwar”.

Personal life of Subrata Roy

He is the son of Smt. Chhavi & Late Shri Sudhir Chandra Roy. He was born in an upper middle class family. As a child he was always a bright student and went on to hold a diploma in Mechanical Engineering from the Government Technical Institute, Gorakhpur.

Before he founded the Sahara Group, he had already gathered 32 years of precious experience in business development along with 18 years of experience in real estate business. He is married to Swapna Roy who is the Dy. Managing Worker (Personnel and welfare). He has 2 sons, Mr Sushanto Roy who is the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Company and Mr Seemanto Roy who is the Executive Director of the Company.

Subrata Roy's Career

As the Managing Worker & Chairman of Sahara India Pariwar, Shri Subrata Roy Sahara started his stupendous journey with a vision backed by the belief that “emotion is the key to success”.

In the year 1978, he opened a small office in Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh). He started with savings of Rs. 2000 and a Lambretta scooter. His office consisted of a table and two chairs and a staff of one clerk and a runner boy. Initially he single handedly took up the business of Deposits and Para - banking.

In a span of just 29 years, the Sahara India Pariwar has grown from just 42 depositors in all and a single establishment in the beginning to over 6.1 crore depositors through 1707 establishments, across the nation. He has created an empire of over Rs.50,000 crore which is now recognized as one of the fastest growing business groups in the country.

Throughout Subrata Roy's life, his aim was to create a family and not just a company. The fact that he always considered his position as that of "The Chief Guardian" of the ‘World's Largest Family’ - Sahara India Pariwar is the biggest achievement of his life.

Achievements and awards won by Subrata Roy

He was the main driving force behind the exponential growth of Sahara Group from an asset base of USD 43 in 1978 when it was founded to a conglomerate of USD 10.87 billion presently.
Apart from this he has been the recipient of many individual awards :

• He has been conferred the ITA – TV Icon of the Year (2007)
• He has received the Global Leadership Award (2004)
• He was also awarded the Businessman of the Year Award (2002), the Best Industrialist Award (2002) and the National Citizen Award (2001) for his entrepreneurship skills.
• He was also the proud recipient of Karmaveer Samman (1995), Udyamshree (1994), Baba-ERozgar (1992) and Noble Citizen Award (1986).
• He won the Academy Award from Indian Television Academy for his contribution to Indian Television.
• He has been successively featured in the prestigious list of 50 Most Powerful People of India in the reputed India Today Magazine since 2003.

About Sahara Group- Company Profile

Today, Sahara group is worth over $10 billion and is the largest first generation conglomerate of India. The Sahara Group was termed by the Time magazine as ‘the second largest employer in India after the Indian Railways’.

• The group is successfully diversified into Infrastructure and Housing (real state), Media (news channels and news-paper), Entertainment (TV channels and film production), Aviation.
• It intends to move into Finance, Information Technology, Tourism and Hospitality, Life Insurance and Consumer Products, with many projects already in the pipeline.
• It also sponsors the Indian Hockey and Cricket team jerseys and other sports equipments.
• On March 22, 2010 in the IPL franchisee auction, Sahara group bought the Pune IPL team for Rs.1, 702 crore and named it “Pune Warriors India”.

Recent Projects of Sahara India

• The Sahara Group has undertaken a very prestigious and ambitious property project called Aamby Valley which is a first of its kind Megalopolis spread over more than 10,000 acres. Located in the outskirts of Mumbai, Aamby Valley City is being developed to be amongst top 5 Destination cities in the world.
• Among its other recent projects, the merger of the Sahara Airlines with Jet Airlines created waves throughout the aviation industry.
• Sahara Group has also acquired a huge complex in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh known as “Sahara City”.

Promoters and Directors of Sahara India

1. Mr. Subrata Roy Sahara - Chairman & Managing Director
2. Mrs. Swapna Roy - Non - Executive Director
3. Mr. Om Prakash Srivastava - Non - Executive Director
4. Mr. Joy Broto Roy - Non - Executive Director
5. Mr. Sushanto Roy - Executive Director and CEO
6. Mr. Seemanto Roy - Executive Director

Independent Directors

1. Mr. Amitabha Ghosh - Former Dy. Governor of Reserve Bank of India
2. Mr. Rajeeva Ratna Shah - Retired Indian Administrative Services Official
3. Justice Kamal Narain Singh - Former Chief Justice of India
4. Mr. Madhukar - Former Member of SEBI/Former Banker
5. Mr. D.P. Bagchi - Retired Indian Administrative Services Official
6. Mr. Devi Dayal - Retired Indian Administrative Services Official

Profit Sharing in Sahara India

The profit sharing pattern of Sahara Group which symbolizes collective sharing and caring is as follows: 35% of profit goes towards Company’s Net owned fund, 25% goes towards Social Development activities and 40% towards the welfare of Kartavyayogi workers.

All Promoters, Shareholders, Directors and Partners are from the workers' rank and have taken an oath through a notary affidavit in the court of law that neither they nor their family members can ever share the profit or assets of the company.

Major Obstacle faced Sahara India Financial Corporation Limited [SIFO] forms the backbone of the Sahara Group. In 1998-2000 when RBI laid down rules and guidelines for residuary non-banking companies, more than 40,000 big and small finance companies shut down, as they could not meet the new RBI norms. SIFO not only survived but also continued to grow during the fiasco. The group attributes its success to following all rules and guidelines and practicing strict checks and controls itself..

Social works done by Sahara India Apart from founding and scaling up his company to astonishing levels, he has instilled the feelings of oneness among the workers (so comes the ''SAHARA PARIWAR”) to inculcate the feelings of unity and vibrancy in the company.

• He always kept emotions above economics, principles above profit, values above wealth and conscience above corporation. Remarks like:
  “We are a family, not just a business organization”.
  “We don’t work for a company, we work for ourselves, for the growth of our Pariwar”. by Sahara chairmans reiterate the above facts.
• He has also written 2 philosophical books namely “Shanti, Sukh & Santushti” and “Maan, Samman, Atmasamman”.
• Furthermore, he has pursued a large number of philanthropic endeavors, and his company is involved in activities like monthly financial assistance to the families of the Martyrs of the Mumbai Nov ’08 terror attack and to the families of Kargil War Martyrs, projects in the fields of rehabilitation of a million victims of natural disasters and so forth.

Controversies surrounding Sahara India

• Apart from a rumor that the rise of Subrata Roy as a property business tycoon is the result of his close association with the leader of Samajwadi Party- Amar Singh and its founder- Mulayam Singh Yadav, Subrata Roy has led a controversy free life. Though he was sometimes criticized for his lavish lifestyle.

It was not only his dynamism and will but his ethics which aided him in crossing the hurdles of life. Undoubtedly, this Roy has succeeded in etching his place within the mentions of Indian Corporate industry.

Last Updated on June 02, 2015