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Subrata Roy (born 10 June 1948) is an Indian businessman who founded
Sahara India Pariwar Sahara India Pariwar (''pariwar'' being Hindi for "family") is an Indian conglomerate headquartered in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. The group operates business sectors such as finance, infrastructure & housing, real estate, sports, power, man ...
in 1978. Sahara India Pariwar has operated a vast number of businesses such as
Aamby Valley City Aamby Valley City is a township developed by the Sahara India Pariwar on the outskirts of Pune, India. Construction and connectivity The city, founded in 2006, is spread over of hilly terrain in the ''Sahyadri hills'' of the Western Ghats. ...
,
Sahara Movie Studios Sahara Movie Studios or also known as (Sahara One Motion Pictures or Sahara Motion Pictures) was a film production company. They produced some films till 2004 to 2014. This company was owned by Sahara India Pariwar. Filmography Films Produced ...
,
Air Sahara JetLite was a low-cost subsidiary of Jet Airways. It was formerly known as ''Air Sahara'' until the buyout by Jet Airways which rebranded the airline as JetLite. On April 17, 2019, JetLite grounded all of its flights and ceased all operations ...
, hockey sports,
Filmy Filmy is an Indian Hindi language movie channel based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is owned by Sahara One Media & Entertainment Limited and was launched on 12 February 2006. Programs The channel also telecasts other programs besides telecastin ...
, among others. Roy was named among the 10 Most Powerful People of India in 2012 by ''
India Today ''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' launched a new on ...
''. In 2004, Sahara group was termed by ''Time'' magazine as 'the second largest employer in India after
Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tota ...
. The group operates through more than 5,000 establishments spread across India and has a workforce of around 1.2 million (both field and office) under the Sahara India umbrella.


Early life

Subrata Roy was born in Bengali Hindu family in
Araria Araria is a city and a municipality that is the headquarters of Araria district in the Indian state of Bihar. Araria is situated in the northern part of Bihar. Etymology During the British Raj the area was under the administration of a Britis ...
on 10 June 1948 to Sudhir Chandra Roy and Chhabi Roy. He studied at Holy Child Institute 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 ...
and later studied mechanical engineering from Government Technical Institute, Gorakhpur. Roy started his first business in
Gorakhpur Gorakhpur is a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, along the banks of the Rapti river in the Purvanchal region. It is situated 272 kilometers east of the state capital Lucknow. It is the administrative headquarters of Gorakhpur dis ...
.


Business career

Roy joined Sahara Finance, a struggling company, in 1976, that ran a
chit fund A chit fund is a type of rotating savings and credit association system practiced in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan other Asian countries. Chit fund schemes may be organized by financial institutions, or informally among friends, relative ...
and took it over. He changed its financial model in 1978. Sahara is said to have used the financial model of much older Peerless Group. They are termed residuary non-banking companies (RNBCs) that accept deposits of very low amounts. In the 1990s, Roy moved to Lucknow which became the base of his group. His Sahara City project covering 217 self-sufficient townships was launched in the 1990s. From there, it went on to become the largest conglomerate of India with a diversified range of business interests. The company now has interests in
financial services Financial services are the economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, accountancy companies, ...
, education, real estate, media, entertainment, tourism, healthcare, and
hospitality Hospitality is the relationship between a guest and a host, wherein the host receives the guest with some amount of goodwill, including the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. Louis, chevalier de Jaucourt describes ...
. The Hindi newspaper
Rashtriya Sahara Sahara India Pariwar (''pariwar'' being Hindi for "family") is an Indian conglomerate headquartered in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. The group operates business sectors such as finance, infrastructure & housing, real estate, sports, power, ...
was started in 1992. In the late 1990s, the ambitious
Aamby Valley City Aamby Valley City is a township developed by the Sahara India Pariwar on the outskirts of Pune, India. Construction and connectivity The city, founded in 2006, is spread over of hilly terrain in the ''Sahyadri hills'' of the Western Ghats. ...
project near Pune was initiated. In 2000, Sahara TV was launched which was later renamed
Sahara One Sahara One is an Indian Hindi general entertainment channel based in New Delhi. It is operated by Sahara India Pariwar. History Sahara One was launched as Sahara TV on 28 March 2000, which later in April 2003 was renamed as Sahara Manoranjan. ...
. In 2003, Sahara started three weeklies: Sahara Time (English), Sahara Samay (Hindi) and Sahara Aalmi (Urdu). In 2010, Sahara purchased the iconic
Grosvenor House Hotel ] JW Marriott Grosvenor House London, originally named the Grosvenor House Hotel, is a luxury hotel that opened in 1929 in the Mayfair area of London, England. The hotel is managed by JW Marriott Hotels, which is a brand of Marriott Internat ...
in London, and 2012 the historic
Plaza Hotel The Plaza Hotel (also known as The Plaza) is a luxury hotel and condominium apartment building in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is located on the western side of Grand Army Plaza, after which it is named, just west of Fifth Avenue, ...
and Dream Downtown Hotel in New York City. Sahara has a workforce of around 1.2 million including Salaried Employees, Consultants, Field Workers, Agents & Business Associates, etc. In 2004, Sahara group was termed by Time magazine as "the second-largest employer in India" after the Government-run Indian Railways. Sahara is said to have 9
crore A crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes ten million (10,000,000 or 107 in scientific notation) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. It is written as 1,00,00,000 with the local 2,2,3 style of digit group separators (one lakh is eq ...
plus investors and depositors, representing about 13% of all households in India. Roy has been planning to foray into online education (edunguru) in India, which is targeted at small towns and villages. He has put a team in place which consists of members from top universities and colleges across India, and even abroad. The route map of the program has been prepared, and 14,000 hours of lectures have been developed for this. In June 2019 Roy announced his foray into the
automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded ...
sector under the brand name 'Sahara Evols'. The Sahara Evols venture will offer a wide range of
electric vehicles An electric vehicle (EV) is a vehicle that uses one or more electric motors for propulsion. It can be powered by a collector system, with electricity from extravehicular sources, or it can be powered autonomously by a battery (sometimes ch ...
(EVs) along with advanced allied services.


Humanitarian efforts

In 2013, Sahara contributed to the relief efforts in flood hit
Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...
region wherein one
lakh A lakh (; abbreviated L; sometimes written lac) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; scientific notation: 105). In the Indian 2,2,3 convention of digit grouping, it is written as 1,00,000. For e ...
bottles of drinking water, packaged juice and food packets along with candles and match boxes were said to be provided by them. There were 25 medical health unit vans equipped with doctors and free medicines made available and it was said by the group that, they will contribute to the rehabilitation programme by constructing 10,000 pre-fabricated houses. Post
Kargil War The Kargil War, also known as the Kargil conflict, was fought between India and Pakistan from May to July 1999 in the Kargil district of Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere along the Line of Control (LoC). In India, the conflict is also referre ...
, the then Prime Minister of India
Atal Bihari Vajpayee Atal Bihari Vajpayee (; 25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018) was an Indian politician who served three terms as the 10th prime minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months fr ...
praised
Sahara India Sahara India Pariwar (''pariwar'' being Hindi for "family") is an Indian conglomerate headquartered in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. The group operates business sectors such as finance, infrastructure & housing, real estate, sports, power, ...
led by Subrata Roy Sahara for providing financial support to the 127 families of martyrs. Subrata Roy owned Hotel Sahara Star
Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...
has joined hands with Feeding India to give back to the society. As a part of its CSR initiatives, the hotel will be providing food to the ones in need.


Awards and honors

Roy received an honorary doctorate in business leadership from the
University of East London , mottoeng = Knowledge and the fulfilment of vows , established = 1898 – West Ham Technical Institute1952 – West Ham College of Technology1970 – North East London Polytechnic1989 – Polytechnic of East London ...
(2013). He also received the Business Icon of the Year award at the Powerbrands Hall of Fame Awards in London in 2011. He has been the ITA – TV Icon of the Year 2007. He has received the Global Leadership Award in 2004. Subrata Roy received Businessmen of the Year Award in 2002, the Best Industrialist Award in 2002, Vishisht Rashtriya Udaan Samman (2010) by a daily from one of India's top publication houses, Vocational Award for Excellence (2010) by
Rotary International Rotary International is one of the largest service organizations in the world. Its stated mission is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through hefellowship of business, prof ...
, Karmaveer Samman (1995), Udyam Shree (1994), Baba-E-Rozgar Award (1992) and the National Citizen Award in 2001. He was awarded a general jury award by the
Indian Television Academy Awards The Indian Television Academy Awards, also known as the ''ITA Awards'', is an annual award ceremony organised by the Indian Television Academy to honour excellence in Hindi-language television. Ceremonies Categories Popular Awards * ITA Aw ...
. He has been also awarded honorary degree of
D. Litt. Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Doctor ...
by
Lalit Narayan Mithila University The Lalit Narayan Mithila University (LNMU), formerly Mithila University, is a public university in India. Began in 1972, the university initially functioned from the Mohanpur House at Sara Mohanpur village of Darbhanga-Sakri route. In 1975, ...
, Darbhanga. Moreover, he has been featured regularly in the ''
India Today ''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' launched a new on ...
'' list of 50 Most Powerful People of India, since 2003. In 2004, Sahara India was termed by ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...
'' magazine as "the second largest employer in India" after
Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tota ...
. In 2012, Roy was named among the 10 most influential businessmen in India by the news magazine ''
India Today ''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' launched a new on ...
''.


Work philosophy

Roy has propounded the corporate philosophy of 'Collective Materialism', that advocates collective growth through collective sharing and caring. He has given lectures on the corporate philosophy propounded by him at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
, IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), IIM (Indian Institute of Management), Banares Hindu University and many other institutions. He has written the following books - *''Shanti, Sukh: Santushti'' - 1994, Essays on peace of mind and happy living. *''Maan, Samman, Atmasamman'' *''Life Mantras'' - "Life Mantras" was released on 2 February 2016 in 5,120 public events across India. The book is the first of the trilogy written by Roy. The book was the best seller and was among the top 5 in the
Nielsen BookScan BookScan is a data provider for the book publishing industry that compiles point of sale data for book sales, owned by The NPD Group in the United States and the Nielsen Company in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India, So ...
bestseller chart for India for four consecutive weeks. ''Life Mantras'' topped the chart by ranking number one and has become a bestseller in the non-fiction category as tracked by Nielsen BookScan. *''Think With Me'' - The second book of his trilogy was launched on 18 December 2016, at the national 'Think With Summit'. The event proved to be a melting pot of ideas from visionaries and thought leaders. This edition talks about the importance of leadership and aligned all efforts towards the nation.


Legal issues

On 26 February 2014, the Supreme Court of India ordered the detention of Roy for failing to appear before it in connection with legal dispute with Market Regulator - SEBI. In a statement after the arrest, his lawyer said Roy's 92-year-old mother was in poor health and needed "her eldest son" by her side, and hence he failed to appear at the court. As he failed to appear in the court during the ongoing legal battle, Roy was held in custody in the Tihar Jail, Delhi and is now out on parole since May 2016. Sahara was allowed to sell a part of its assets in India to raise part of the money in question. Roy has rejected allegations of misconduct and has alleged
Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...
of witch hunt due to his opposition to
Sonia Gandhi Sonia Gandhi (''née'' Maino; born 9 December 1946) is an Indian politician. She is the longest serving president of the Indian National Congress, a social democratic political party, which has governed India for most of its post-independen ...
over becoming the country's prime minister. Initially he was granted interim bail by Supreme Court of India on 26 March 2014 on condition of depositing ₹10,000 crore to the market regulator SEBI. His deposit of ₹10,000 crore has not been made. As of August 2014, Roy was trying to sell some of his hotel properties to raise enough money. Roy was granted his first bail in May 2017 for four weeks to perform the last rites for his deceased mother, later extended to 24 October. Since then he has been successful in getting his bail extended on various grounds. As of 31 January 2019, Sahara still had to pay ₹10,621 crore to meet its total liability. Roy claims that the company's fundamentals are intact and assets are greater (3 to 5 times) than the liabilities. Sahara also has deposited ₹22,500 crores which will in due course of justice come back to Sahara India as it has already repaid 95% of its investors. The Securities And Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has repaid only ₹64 crore to the investors since 2012. It is also been reported that Sahara has paid ₹725.97 crore as TDS (tax deducted at source) to the Income Tax Departments on the interest which along with investment was repaid to 95 percent of the investors, between 2009–2010 and 2012–2013. The income tax authorities had found that the beneficiary investors were existent and accordingly confirmed the repayments made in those particular years. One of Sahara's arguments in the apex court revolves around the fact that if one government body has found investors, why the other cannot do so. On 28 August 2020, two petitions were filed against the release of the
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...
documentary Bad Boy Billionaires: India in the Bihar district court. The Bihar court passed an interim stay order on the petition filed by Subrata Roy against the release of the documentary on the Netflix platform. Following the stay order by the Bihar court, Netflix threatened to move the
Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
against the court order for restraining the documentary release. On 5 October 2020, Netflix released three out of four films in the anthology, including those featuring
Vijay Mallya Vijay Vittal Mallya (born 18 December 1955) is an Indian businessman, former politician and fugitive. He is the subject of an extradition effort by the Indian Government to return him from the UK to face charges of financial crimes in India. ...
("The King of Good Times"),
Nirav Modi Nirav Deepak Modi (born 27 February 1971) is a Belgian businessman and fugitive who was charged by Interpol and the Government of India for criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, cheating and dishonesty including delivery of property, c ...
("Diamonds Aren't Forever") and Subrata Roy ("The World's Biggest Family"), while the final episode about
Ramalinga Raju Byrraju Ramalinga Raju (born 16 September 1954) is an Indian businessman. He is the founder of Satyam Computer Services and served as its chairman and CEO from 1987 until 2009. Raju stepped down following his admission to embezzlement from the ...
remained encumbered by legal injunctions and as of December 2020 has yet to be released.


See also

*
Sahara India Pariwar Sahara India Pariwar (''pariwar'' being Hindi for "family") is an Indian conglomerate headquartered in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. The group operates business sectors such as finance, infrastructure & housing, real estate, sports, power, man ...


References


External links


Official Website of 'Saharasri' Subrata Roy Sahara

Subrata Roy Sahara Website

Sahara Group Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roy, Subrata Bengali people 1947 births Living people People from Araria Businesspeople from Bihar Indian Premier League franchise owners Businesspeople from Lucknow Sahara India Pariwar 20th-century Indian businesspeople Force India Inmates of Tihar Jail People charged with fraud