Latest news with #Marwari
Time of India
13 minutes ago
- General
- Time of India
This Heritage Library Speaks Volumes In Whispers
New Delhi: As you walk down the bustling road in Chandni Chowk, it's hard to notice the Marwari Sarvajanik Pustakalaya located above the popular Haldiram's eatery unless one is actually looking for it. Located across Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib, the reading oasis can be accessed through an aged, mirrored door and a narrow stairway. Inside, there's a typical library setting, the atmosphere silent with the people in the room absorbed in their books and newspapers. Further inside, the wall facing the reception area reveals the relevance of this place. It showcases the institution's historical importance through framed notes from historical icons like Mahatma Gandhi, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Madan Mohan Malviya. These share a cozy presence alongside Delhi Development Authority's 'Heritage Library' recognition certificates. The public library in old Delhi holds immense significance in India's independence movement, the receptionist said in a low tone, pointing to the proof provided in an anachronistic visitors' book, which contains ink signatures and written messages from luminaries of the age of national ferment. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Treatment That Might Help You Against Knee Pain (Search Here) Kneepain | Search Search Now Undo You Can Also Check: Delhi AQI | Weather in Delhi | Bank Holidays in Delhi | Public Holidays in Delhi Founded by freedom fighter Kedarnath Goenka, a Marwari merchant in 1915, the Sarvajanik Pustakalaya was a common rendezvous for revolutionaries during India's fight for freedom. "In the evenings or on certain days, the place became a meeting place where freedom fighters and intellectuals discussed independence," said Raj Narayan Shroff, member of the founding family of Marwari Charitable Trust, which runs the library. "Goenka, who was inspired by Gandhian ideals, invited Mahatma Gandhi to the library for the first time on Nov 27, 1917." Apart from Gandhi, many others, among them Tilak, Malviya, Vijay Laxmi Pandit, KM Munshi, Aruna Asaf Ali, Ram Niwas Mirdha and Chaudhary Brahm Prakash, the first chief minister of Delhi, visited the place. Renowned Hindi poets and writers, including Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Maithili Sharan Gupt and Harivansh Rai Bachchan, also came to the library. Prem Singhania, president of the library and dispensary run by the trust, added, "When Goenka joined the Indian National Congress, he inspired the Marwari community, mostly businessmen, to contribute to the freedom struggle and to the running of facilities that would educate people about their rights. Today, this place serves as a treasure trove for scholars seeking printed Hindi resources from the early 1900s. " Wooden platforms in the corners once held stacks of prominent Hindi and Urdu newspapers, allowing visitors' unlimited reading time at no cost. Shroff noted that the collection later expanded to include magazines and books, with a focus on Hindi literature. The building, spread across two floors, previously showcased Victorian architecture with distinctive white pillars. Today, it has a contemporary look, divided into two distinct areas — one designated for readers and the other housing its substantial book collection of over 35,000 books, including 22 old manuscripts and numerous historical volumes, serving book enthusiasts, historians and competitive exam aspirants alike. " Our collection has the manuscripts of Shri Dadu Vani, Bhrigu Samhita, chronicles of the Agarwal Samaj and the Lok Sabha proceedings from the 1960s," said Abhishek Ganediwala, who looks after the library operations. "These valuable documents are preserved with utmost care and protection. We also maintain an extensive collection of periodicals such as Hans, Stree Darpan, Chaand, Dharmyug and encyclopaedias. " Since 1956, the Marwari Charitable Trust's associated families have overseen four educational and healthcare establishments, including a senior secondary school established subsequently on Nai Sadak. The trust has launched a fresh initiative supporting students preparing for competitive exams. This programme enables students to borrow essential books at no cost if they submit a recommendation letter from their educational institutions. Trilok Chand Goenka, representing the third generation of the founder's family, expressed appreciation for those who supported the trust's ongoing mission. "While we didn't have enough funds to open a senior secondary school, Seth Ram Lal Khemka offered us land free of cost and the trust bore the construction expenses. To date, both primary and secondary schools are providing free education to 500 students. The dispensary works for six days and offers free consultancies and medicines," he said. Throughout its hundred-year existence, the trust members took on the challenges, remaining committed to the educational facility. "Although a conventional library in appearance, the pustakalaya's extensive collection is a valuable resource for international universities, academics and research scholars," said trust member Pradeep Gupta. "The facility began serving the public in a period when libraries were scarce in the region. Today, the strategic location near the metro station has transformed it into a preferred destination for children, who come every day to access books without being charged any fee." The library has also been the venue of social initiatives, prominently the Nagari Pracharini Sabha and Hindi Sahitya Sabha. In recent years, it has hosted meetings focused on the cleaning of the Yamuna, according to Gupta.
Sydney Morning Herald
4 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
The Gen Z billionaires who are bored with business
The family that ran India's largest luggage maker for more than half a century is packing it in, with control of Mumbai-based VIP Industries passing to private equity. 'What do I do?' chairman Dilip Piramal, 75, wondered aloud in a TV interview after announcing the sale. 'The younger generation is not interested in management.' Piramal isn't the only ageing businessperson to have run out of successors. 'Today among the scions of some of the most affluent families of India, someone is an artist, someone wants to be a sportsman, someone wants to run a small restaurant. There's nothing wrong in that. It's the modern trend, people want to do their own things,' he said. Two hundred years ago, that 'modern' trend among young people used to be enterprise. That's when families like Piramal's began to spread out of the Marwar region in land-locked northern India to take advantage of British-controlled trading opportunities in the port cities of Bombay and Calcutta – now Mumbai and Kolkata. Cotton, jute and opium sold to China provided the seed capital to the Marwari business community for everything from textile mills to cement factories. By the early 20th century, these emerging industrial empires were large enough to challenge the colonial masters and their commercial interests. The likes of Ghanshyam Das Birla openly supported Mahatma Gandhi's campaign for independence, even as they outran rivals like Andrew Yule & Co. The Birla House in Delhi, a prominent hub for the freedom movement, was also where Gandhi was assassinated. As the sway of family firms continued after India's 1947 independence, it was believed that newer generations would always be available to take over the reins. Below the surface, however, the link between ownership and management has been weakening for some time. Piramal's daughter, Radhika, a Harvard University MBA, was the chief executive officer for a few years before quitting in 2017 and relocating with her spouse to London. Her same-sex marriage is not legally recognised in India. The luggage maker was back to being in the care of professional managers, a double-edged sword considering that a rival firm set up by a former managing director is now three-fifths bigger than VIP by market value. The heirs of prominent business families – Millennial and Gen Z billionaires – are setting their own life goals. It's the sensible thing to do. In a labour-surplus economy, access to capital through clan networks and strategic marital alliances was family-run firms' core advantage. But via public markets and private equity, finance is now available to a much wider section of entrepreneurs. Risk-taking has been democratised. That frees up younger members of business dynasties to try new things. Someone recently asked the singer-songwriter Ananya Birla on social media if she was from the family behind India's largest-selling cement brand. She is indeed the great-great-granddaughter of Ghanshyam Das Birla. But from financial inclusion among rural women to a recently launched beauty brand, the 31-year-old Oxford graduate has her own interests that are independent of the sprawling commodities behemoth led by her father.
The Age
4 days ago
- Business
- The Age
The Gen Z billionaires who are bored with business
The family that ran India's largest luggage maker for more than half a century is packing it in, with control of Mumbai-based VIP Industries passing to private equity. 'What do I do?' chairman Dilip Piramal, 75, wondered aloud in a TV interview after announcing the sale. 'The younger generation is not interested in management.' Piramal isn't the only ageing businessperson to have run out of successors. 'Today among the scions of some of the most affluent families of India, someone is an artist, someone wants to be a sportsman, someone wants to run a small restaurant. There's nothing wrong in that. It's the modern trend, people want to do their own things,' he said. Two hundred years ago, that 'modern' trend among young people used to be enterprise. That's when families like Piramal's began to spread out of the Marwar region in land-locked northern India to take advantage of British-controlled trading opportunities in the port cities of Bombay and Calcutta – now Mumbai and Kolkata. Cotton, jute and opium sold to China provided the seed capital to the Marwari business community for everything from textile mills to cement factories. By the early 20th century, these emerging industrial empires were large enough to challenge the colonial masters and their commercial interests. The likes of Ghanshyam Das Birla openly supported Mahatma Gandhi's campaign for independence, even as they outran rivals like Andrew Yule & Co. The Birla House in Delhi, a prominent hub for the freedom movement, was also where Gandhi was assassinated. As the sway of family firms continued after India's 1947 independence, it was believed that newer generations would always be available to take over the reins. Below the surface, however, the link between ownership and management has been weakening for some time. Piramal's daughter, Radhika, a Harvard University MBA, was the chief executive officer for a few years before quitting in 2017 and relocating with her spouse to London. Her same-sex marriage is not legally recognised in India. The luggage maker was back to being in the care of professional managers, a double-edged sword considering that a rival firm set up by a former managing director is now three-fifths bigger than VIP by market value. The heirs of prominent business families – Millennial and Gen Z billionaires – are setting their own life goals. It's the sensible thing to do. In a labour-surplus economy, access to capital through clan networks and strategic marital alliances was family-run firms' core advantage. But via public markets and private equity, finance is now available to a much wider section of entrepreneurs. Risk-taking has been democratised. That frees up younger members of business dynasties to try new things. Someone recently asked the singer-songwriter Ananya Birla on social media if she was from the family behind India's largest-selling cement brand. She is indeed the great-great-granddaughter of Ghanshyam Das Birla. But from financial inclusion among rural women to a recently launched beauty brand, the 31-year-old Oxford graduate has her own interests that are independent of the sprawling commodities behemoth led by her father.
Time of India
23-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
India's Gen Z billionaires are bored with business
The family that ran India's largest luggage maker for more than half a century is packing it in, with control of Mumbai-based VIP Industries Ltd. passing to private equity. 'What do I do?' Dilip Piramal , the 75-year-old chairman, wondered aloud in a TV interview after announcing the sale. 'The younger generation is not interested in management.' Piramal isn't the only aging businessperson to have run out of successors: 'Today among the scions of some of the most affluent families of India, someone is an artist, someone wants to be a sportsman, someone wants to run a small restaurant. There's nothing wrong in that. It's the modern trend, people want to do their own things.' Two hundred years ago, that 'modern' trend among young people used to be enterprise. That's when families like Piramal's began to spread out of the Marwar region in land-locked northern India to take advantage of British-controlled trading opportunities in the port cities of Bombay and Calcutta — now Mumbai and Kolkata. Cotton, jute, and opium sold to China provided the seed capital to the Marwari business community for everything from textile mills to cement factories. By the early 20th century, these emerging industrial empires were large enough to challenge the colonial masters and their commercial interests. The likes of Ghanshyam Das Birla openly supported Mahatma Gandhi's campaign for independence, even as they outran rivals like Andrew Yule & Co. The Birla House in Delhi, a prominent hub for the freedom movement, was also where Gandhi was assassinated. As the sway of family firms continued after India's 1947 independence, it was believed that newer generations would always be available to take over the reins. Below the surface, however, the link between ownership and management has been weakening for some time. Piramal's daughter, Radhika, a Harvard University MBA, was the chief executive officer for a few years before quitting in 2017 and relocating with her spouse to London. Her same-sex marriage is not legally recognized in India. The luggage maker was back to being in the care of professional managers, a double-edged sword considering that a rival firm set up by a former managing director is now three-fifths bigger than VIP by market value. The heirs of prominent business families — millennial and Gen Z billionaires — are setting their own life goals. It's the sensible thing to do. In a labor-surplus economy, access to capital through clan networks and strategic marital alliances was family-run firms' core advantage. But via public markets and private equity, finance is now available to a much wider section of entrepreneurs. Risk-taking has been democratized. That frees up younger members of business dynasties to try new things. Someone recently asked the singer-songwriter Ananya Birla on social media if she was from the family behind India's largest-selling cement brand. She is indeed the great-great-granddaughter of Ghanshyam Das Birla. But from financial inclusion among rural women to a recently launched beauty brand, the 31-year-old Oxford graduate has her own interests that are independent of the sprawling commodities behemoth led by her father. Though they're from Tamil Nadu in southern India, and not Marwar in Rajasthan, it's the same for philanthropist Roshni Nadar Malhotra, the chair of HCL Technologies Ltd., a $48 billion outsourcing powerhouse founded by her dad. He gifted her the family's controlling stake in March. Running the tech firm's day-to-day operations is someone else's job. Nadar is passionate about wildlife conservation, among other things. Piramal is retaining 20% of VIP. But that's just a financial investment in a publicly traded security. He'll pare it down. Owners of unlisted firms are proceeding more slowly. A few months ago, the family behind Haldiram's, a 90-year-old Indian snacks brand, parted with a minority stake to Singapore's Temasek Holdings Pte and other global investors. Media reports put the firm's valuation at $10 billion. A scenario where India's business elite is basically a bunch of rich financiers, living off accumulated wealth, doesn't appeal to everyone. 'What concerns me is that many in this generation are taking the easy way out, especially in the post-Covid world,' says billionaire Uday Kotak , who retired two years ago as managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, which he founded in the 1980s as a finance company. 'They claim to be managing family offices and investments, trading in the stock market, allocating funds to mutual funds, and treating it as a full-time job.' But they are probably just smart to realize that they're sandwiched. On one hand, access to capital is no longer their abiding advantage. On the other, real economic power is concentrating in fewer hands. Viral Acharya, a former central bank deputy governor, has shown in his research that India's top five nonfinancial groups have expanded their share of total assets by 8 percentage points in 30 years, whereas the next five business groups' sway has shrunk by roughly the same amount. From cement, steel, autos, power, and paints to retail, telecom, media, finance, and aviation, a handful of powerful conglomerates are pouncing on every new opportunity. No wonder the successors of tycoons like Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani and Sajjan Jindal are closely involved in management. Children from middling business families probably don't see the point of entering a new field only to see it being disrupted by a startup — or dominated by a bigger player. Many more Indian assets will change hands as their family owners ultimately lose interest in tending to them. In heading for the exit, Piramal, the luggage maker, has given a good indication of the direction of travel.
The Star
23-07-2025
- Business
- The Star
India's Gen Z billionaires bored with business
THE family that ran India's largest luggage maker for more than half a century is packing it in, with control of Mumbai-based VIP Industries Ltd, passing to private equity. 'What do I do?' Dilip Piramal, the 75-year-old chairman, wondered aloud in a television interview after announcing the sale. 'The younger generation is not interested in management.' Piramal isn't the only ageing businessperson to have run out of successors: 'Today among the scions of some of the most affluent families of India, someone is an artist, someone wants to be a sportsman, someone wants to run a small restaurant. 'There's nothing wrong in that. It's the modern trend, people want to do their own things.' Two hundred years ago, that 'modern' trend among young people used to be enterprise. That's when families like Piramal's began to spread out of the Marwar region in land-locked northern India to take advantage of British-controlled trading opportunities in the port cities of Bombay and Calcutta – now Mumbai and Kolkata. Cotton, jute, and opium sold to China provided the seed capital to the Marwari business community for everything from textile mills to cement factories. By the early 20th century, these emerging industrial empires were large enough to challenge the colonial masters and their commercial interests. The likes of Ghanshyam Das Birla openly supported Mahatma Gandhi's campaign for independence, even as they outran rivals like Andrew Yule & Co. The Birla House in Delhi, a prominent hub for the freedom movement, was also where Gandhi was assassinated. As the sway of family firms continued after India's 1947 independence, it was believed that newer generations would always be available to take over the reins. Below the surface, however, the link between ownership and management has been weakening for some time. Piramal's daughter, Radhika, a Harvard University MBA, was the chief executive officer for a few years before quitting in 2017 and relocating with her spouse to London. Her same-sex marriage is not legally recognised in India. The luggage maker was back to being in the care of professional managers, a double-edged sword considering that a rival firm set up by a former managing director is now three-fifths bigger than VIP by market value. The heirs of prominent business families – Millennial and Gen Z billionaires – are setting their own life goals. It's the sensible thing to do. In a labour-surplus economy, access to capital through clan networks and strategic marital alliances was family-run firms' core advantage. But via public markets and private equity, finance is now available to a much wider section of entrepreneurs. Risk-taking has been democratised. That frees up younger members of business dynasties to try new things. Someone recently asked the singer-songwriter Ananya Birla on social media if she was from the family behind India's largest-selling cement brand. She is indeed the great-great-granddaughter of Ghanshyam Das Birla. But from financial inclusion among rural women to a recently launched beauty brand, the 31-year-old Oxford graduate has her own interests that are independent of the sprawling commodities behemoth led by her father. Though they're from Tamil Nadu in southern India, and not Marwar in Rajasthan, it's the same for philanthropist Roshni Nadar Malhotra, the chair of HCL Technologies Ltd, a US$48bil outsourcing powerhouse founded by her dad. He gifted her the family's controlling stake in March. Running the tech firm's day-to-day operations is someone else's job. Nadar is passionate about wildlife conservation, among other things. Piramal is retaining 20% of VIP. But that's just a financial investment in a publicly traded security. He'll pare it down. Owners of unlisted firms are proceeding more slowly. A few months ago, the family behind Haldiram's, a 90-year-old Indian snacks brand, parted with a minority stake to Singapore's Temasek Holdings Pte and other global investors. Media reports put the firm's valuation at US$10bil. A scenario where India's business elite is basically a bunch of rich financiers, living off accumulated wealth, doesn't appeal to everyone. 'What concerns me is that many in this generation are taking the easy way out, especially in the post-Covid world,' says billionaire Uday Kotak, who retired two years ago as managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, which he founded in the 1980s as a finance company. 'They claim to be managing family offices and investments, trading in the stock market, allocating funds to mutual funds, and treating it as a full-time job.' But they are probably just smart to realise that they're sandwiched. On one hand, access to capital is no longer their abiding advantage. On the other, real economic power is concentrating in fewer hands. Viral Acharya, a former central bank deputy governor, has shown in his research that India's top five non-financial groups have expanded their share of total assets by eight percentage points in 30 years, whereas the next five business groups' sway has shrunk by roughly the same amount. From cement, steel, autos, power, and paints to retail, telecom, media, finance, and aviation, a handful of powerful conglomerates are pouncing on every new opportunity. No wonder the successors of tycoons like Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani and Sajjan Jindal are closely involved in management. Children from middling business families probably don't see the point of entering a new field only to see it being disrupted by a startup – or dominated by a bigger player. Many more Indian assets will change hands as their family owners ultimately lose interest in tending to them. In heading for the exit, Piramal, the luggage maker, has given a good indication of the direction of travel. — Bloomberg Andy Mukherjee is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies and financial services in Asia. The views expressed here are the writer's own.
