Subrata roy :-

Basic information

Subrato 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”.

Family

He is the son of Smt. Chhavi & Late Shri Sudhir Chandra Roy. 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. 

Growing up

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.

The Beginning

As the Managing Worker & Chairman of Sahara India Pariwar, Shri Subroto 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 Subroto 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. 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.

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

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

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

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.

Virtues and Social ResponsibilitiesApart 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.

ControversyApart from a rumor:that the rise of Subroto 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, Subroto 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.