Jitu Virwani and his journey to the top

Jitu Virwani - An article published in ChinaDailyAsia.com

Indian property developer Jitu Virwani has risen to riches in the “IT spice” of the southern city of Bangalore by renting office space to major IT firms and creating landmark high-end residential developments.

The chairman and managing director of India’s Embassy Group has a way with land and choosing the right pieces. “I believe the land speaks to me,” he says, “and I get a response from it when I ask.”

Last year, Virwani was ranked 53rd richest in India by Forbes magazine, with an estimated wealth of $1 billion. It didn’t come easy, though, for the 48-year-old who hails from bustling Mumbai.

Virwani’s father, Mohan, was in the real estate business in Mumbai in partnership with his brother, in an enterprise named Embassy Constructions.

But Mumbai’s tropical weather did not suit the senior Virwani, so when an offer came up to work on a project in Bangalore, which is known for its pleasant climate, he seized the opportunity and brought his family along.

At this time, the mid-1980s, India was experiencing an influx of multinational IT companies. They were following in the footsteps of Texas Instruments, which set up base in Bangalore in 1985. And for the construction and property industry, including Virwani’s father, that shift created a new wave of opportunities to build and rent out office space.

In the years since then, Bangalore’s flourishing IT parks have turned the city into India’s Silicon Valley.

At the time of the family’s move to Bangalore, Virwani was a 19-year-old student. His classmates may have been skipping lectures to go to movies, but Virwani followed his father to construction sites. “My father opposed my eagerness to go to the sites because he wanted me to focus on my studies,” he recalls.

When he was growing up, Virwani was fascinated by his father’s construction business.

“I always had this fire inside me since seventh grade to make my own money some day,” he says. “The whole idea was that I wanted to be in a good position when I grew up and got married, not to be dependent on anyone, and have my own financial resources.”

After his undergraduate studies, Virwani stepped into his father’s office, eager to start work. He was given the position of liaison officer in charge of going to government offices to arrange construction permits. As the years went by, Virwani began helping out with site management. He would arrange the schedules for the contract workers his father had hired for a project. His father personally purchased the materials, and Virwani followed suit. Ultimately, he was allowed to manage a construction project independently.

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