Questionnaire for Ghanshyam Sarda

Questionnaire for Ghanshyam Sarda

1. Where does your family originally hail from in Rajasthan? How long has your family been in Kolkatta?

We belong to Sujangarh, under the Bikaner division – a region that is home to India’s strongest business community, During the pre-independence era, opportunities were just opening up for business in the beautiful city of Calcutta. It was in the early 1940s that my father Lt. Shri ShiwaLal ji Sarda and his brothers moved to Calcutta and gradually moved the family also.

2. How and when did you start your business career? What was the name of the jute trading company that your family-owned?

My father was very particular on weekends or in Summer and Diwali Vacations to take me to office since the age of 12-13. Although then it seemed to be a pleasure trip for me but I now realize how valuable that training was. He ensured that my classes at St. Xavier’s College are in morning session and from there it was straight to office. As I graduated I was completely soaked into the family business of Raw Jute Trading. The Partnership firm formed by my father and his brothers M/s. Ramdeo Shiwlal, had built up a strong base in raw jute trading. I joined the business in late seventies, unfortunately at that time the raw jute Industry had hit rock bottom and the entire family capital was tied to sick Jut Mill. The situation of Jute Trader has become very vulnerable as the sickness has plagued the Jute Industry into closure of over 60% of the Jute Mill.

3. Tell us a little about how you took over sick jute units and revived them under the then Marxist regime of West Bengal.

As we say that fortunes are always made out of worst crisis, my life’s first chance came from Late Shri Rama Prasadji Goenka. “ Rama Babu” as he was popularly called in one of the trade meeting asked me to take over his group’s Agarpara Jute Mills.

Untutored, unprepared and without any experience of running an Industry, the prospect of employing over 4000 workmen with the Marxist Government at the helm was unimaginable. In those days, the Industrial scenario in Bengal was dreadful.” The labour labour militancy and the strong arm tactic of trade unions at Bengal made it difficult for even the normal Industry to survive. Almost all the Industry houses including the Birlas had shifted their base outside West Bengal. Jute Industry was going through most difficult times when almost 70% of the Mill closed.

Inspired by my father’s vision and undeterred patience to handle adversity I decided to go deep into the challenge of surviving in the Jute Industry. There was steep opposition from the State Government and Trade Union on my way of controlling the workforce and I was labelled as the rebellion businessman in West Bengal. Though even at the cost of antagonising the leadership of State and frivolous Police cases being filed against me, I could manage successfully in selling the idea of production link wages and a small portion of the wages of the workers’ contribution to revive the sickness of the Company with a payback agreement. This was a revolution in West Bengal which helped almost all the closed Jute Mill to open. We successfully transformed our unit into profit-making and for that, I remain grateful to the Goenka family till date. Post this I set my goals to take over labour oriented sick Jute Mills and in a span of 5 years our family had control of over 9 Jute Mills employing over 70,000 to 80,000 workers directly/ indirectly. Today our’s is the only group that has Jute Mills in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh apart from West Bengal.

Though the tag of the largest employer in West Bengal has taken indefatigable hard work I owe it to my father for his early training and discipline.

4. What are some of the other industries that you diversified into after jute? How big is your company now and what is it called?

As an entrepreneur and businessman you always want to achieve more, take risks and do experiments. My journey has been the same- I did not stop at becoming the largest Jute manufacturer and invested in diverse sectors such as chemicals, distillery, real estate, tea estates, IT/ITes, Presently we have scaled up our real estate portfolio (warehouses, residential townships) and IT/ ITes business (e-governance, skill development, marine engineering, health insurance) significantly. My love for Jute Mill still continues and have spinned off many of

the revived sick Companies and concentrated more on eco-friendly and biodegradable business.

5. Tell us about your contribution in the life of children and your future plan.

I believe that knowledge is not power, knowledge is only potential power. It transforms itself into actual power the moment you decisively act on it. I ensured that my children are exposed to business skills and dynamics from an early age and learn to work on them. My elder daughter completed her studies from New York University and started looking after I.T. business in the family. She got married to Abhinav Jhunjhunwala, a Berkeley and University of Chicago, Booth School Graduate and scion of Jhunjhunwala family from Mumbai. Prerna and Abhinav have settled down in Singapore. Her ancestral skill came handy as one of her start up pre-schools for Children between 2 to 6 years has become very popular in Singapore. The School has been awarded as the best pre-school of Asia pacific. Ghanshyam Sarda simply owes it all to his father and says that the early age training enforced by his father.

My second daughter Saumya is equally hard working and has established her own company of integrated facility management employing more than 2500 people spread across 13 cities covering 6 mn+ sq.ft. She is married to Harsh Binani, a SRCC and Kellogg School graduate and formerly in McKinsey & Co, Chicago.

Although my desire of Neetish joining me and carry forward the legacy of Jute business remained unfulfilled as he decided to start a new venture which was unknown in the commercial space in India. He has formed a niche and independent organisation and has become a prominent player in his domain.

6. Tell us a little about your philanthropic contributions.

I have seen the plight of labours from ground zero and I understand the hardships they go through and the kind of support the underprivileged require. My primary endeavour is to create more employment and that is the reason of my commitment to continue in Industry I firmly believe that education is the right for every individual for a bright future and my focus remains on uplifting the future generations so that the problems that persists today doesn’t find its way to the future. I have always encouraged young kids to get educated and extend a hand of support towards their communities and societies.

My wife Neeta in fact takes lead in educating children for a bright future. She has been supportive towards driving the group’s philanthropic contributions since beginning. She is deeply involved in education programme of our group and especially in one of the education Institute started by my

father and his brothers. Ram Dev Sarda Maha Vidyalaya in Purnea is a premier management institution that churns out around 5000 students each year.

7. What are your future plans?

I am looking forward to expand our jute mill capacity significantly as the government’s latest push on bio-degradable products has created more opportunities. We are exploring building the world’s largest jute mill in South India over the next 2-3 years. Separately I will look to monetize and develop the vast real estate holdings the group has across Bengal, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Delhi NCR. While all my children are independent and professionally settled down, I also look forward to marrying Neetish and enjoying the second innings of my life with my grandchildren.