Ramesh Chandra (born 1939) is the founder

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

company Unitech.

Early life and education

Ramesh Chandra, was born in 1941 to a banker, and spent his formative years in

Farrukhabad Farrukhabad is a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of the Farrukhabad tehsil. The city is on the banks of river Ganges and is from the national capital Delhi and from the state capital Lucknow. ...

, a town in

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

. After finishing his schooling there, he joined

IIT Kharagpur Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur) is a Public university, public institute of technology established by the Government of India in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India. Established in 1951, the institute is the first of the Indi ...

, where he studied structural engineering.Unitech supremo: A reluctant tycoon
''

The Economic Times ''The Economic Times'' is an Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper. It is owned by The Times Group. ''The Economic Times'' began publication in 1961. As of 2012, it is the world's second-most widely read English-language bu ...

'', 26 Jan 2008. Unitech logo

Career

After completing a short stint at the Bridge and Roof Company in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

post his graduation, he left to major in Structural Engineering at the

University of Southampton , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. However, along with four of his friends, he started the United Technical Consultant Private Ltd., primarily a soil investigation company, in Delhi. He used to have net worth over $11 billion at his peak in 2007, but fell into trouble after it got embroiled in a telecom corruption scandal. He moved into real estate and civil engineering in 1985 to build middle-class homes and completed many prestigious projects in Gurgaon, UP, and Libya, among other middle-eastern countries. His publicly traded company, the

Unitech Group Unitech Limited is an Indian real estate investment company headquartered in New Delhi,

The company is now largely under the management of two sons — Ajay Chandra and

Sanjay Chandra Sanjay Chandra is the former Managing Director of Unitech Ltd, India's second-largest real estate investment company. He is in jail for a Unitech fraud case of Rs 20,000 crore. He is also on the board of Unitech Wireless. Early life and edu ...

with latter being in charge of Unitech Wireless. In 2011, Sanjay Chandra was implicated in the 2G spectrum case and was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation. Ramesh Chandra was jailed on 11 January 2016 on charges of cheating.

Personal life

He is married to Pushpa Chandra, and has two children — Ajay Chandra and

References

External links

Unitech Group websiteMoney Control

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

The Financial Express
Indian billionaires Living people IIT Kharagpur alumni Businesspeople from Delhi People from Farrukhabad 2G spectrum case People charged with corruption 1939 births Alumni of the University of Southampton {{India-business-bio-stub