Who is Darshan Hiranandani, linked to the bribery allegations case against Mahua Moitra?

Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey has written to the Lok Sabha Speaker alleging that his Trinamool Congress fellow-parliamentarian Mahua Maitra accepted gifts and cash to raise queries in Parliament that served to protect businessman Darshan Hiranandani’s interests

Bharatiya Janata Party MP Nishikant Dubey has written to the Lok Sabha Speaker alleging that his Trinamool Congress fellow-parliamentarian Mahua Maitra accepted gifts and cash to raise queries in Parliament that served to protect businessman Darshan Hiranandani’s interests. Let’s take a look at the non-politician in all of this.

Darshan Hiranandani, the businessman named in the Mahua Moitra bribery row, is the CEO of the real estate and infrastructure company Hiranandani Group.

The group is privately held by the Hiranandani family. Darshan is also CEO of the Hiranandani family office, Nidar Group.

The 42-year-old is the son and successor of real estate tycoon Niranjan Hiranandani, the founder and managing director of the group.  He is also the chairman of data centre operator Yotta Data Services, oil and gas and related infrastructure company H-Energy, Tarq Semiconductors and consumer services offering Tez Platforms.

According to his LinkedIn profile, the younger Hiranandani holds an MBA and a Bachelor of Science degrees from Rochester Institute of Technology, New York.

“Darshan Hiranandani is credited with taking the group’s real estate business international and diversifying in emerging sectors such as datacenters, cloud computing, energy, and industrial warehousing & logistics. A composed individual with a focused vision, he envisions meeting the country’s infrastructure requirements and contributing to its economic growth,” according to the profile.

In 2004, he setup the group’s first overseas venture, 23 Marina in Dubai, the world’s tallest residential tower. In 2017, he founded H-Energy, which he developed on his own and runs India’s first floating LNG terminal in Maharashtra and associated natural gas pipelines. In 2020, he founded Yotta Data Services, which is among the leading data centre developers and operators in India and boasts Asia’s largest Tier IV data centre.
In 2020, he created an industrial parks platform called Greenbase in partnership with Blackstone which is now one of the largest plug-and-play industrial park developers in the country.

Darshan is part of the ASSOCHAM (India’s oldest apex trade chamber with 450,000 businesses as members) and chairs several councils for the chamber.

He also serves as a member of board of trustees of his alma mater Rochester Institute of Technology as well as on the board of directors for RIT Dubai. He is on the advisory board of Hyderabad Sind National Collegiate Board, a not-for-profit organisation that runs 17 colleges and has 45,000 students in Mumbai.

As part of the board of directors of the Hiranandani Group, he was also instrumental in setting up the Dr L.H. Hiranandani Hospital (a non-profit) under the Hiranandani Foundation, which won the coveted Ramkrishna Bajaj Award for the best hospital in India.

About the Hiranandani Group

Niranjan Hiranandani and Surendra Hiranandani started the business in 1978.

The company has constructed and delivered about 48 million square feet of real estate, including 35 million square feet of residential and nearly 14 million square feet of commercial and retail space in Powai, Panvel, Thane (all part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region), Chennai, Ahmedabad and Pune.

In April 2023, Niranjan Hiranandani had told Moneycontrol that the company had plans to enter the business of redeveloping old buildings and a formal announcement is expected in the coming months.

The company also plans to launch three plotted development projects in Alibaug and Khandala, resort areas popular with Mumbaikars, and in Chennai. Hiranandani said the group owns 250 acres of land in Alibaug, 500 acres in Khandala and 400 acres in Chennai.