From successful business to auto driver: Why this man is Anand Mahindra’s ‘start-up hero’

Anand Mahindra’s “start-up hero” is not some billionaire entrepreneur or pioneering inventor, but an auto rickshaw driver who rebuilt his life from scratch after losing everything. “What he has done takes much more spirit and courage than just starting up a business—he has restarted and reinvented his life…not just once, but twice…” wrote the chairman of Mahindra Group as he shared the story of Paramjeet Singh.

Once the sole distributor of soft drink concentrate Rasna, Paramjeet Singh was a well-known figure in Delhi, especially in the Lajpat Nagar neighbourhood where he owned a large godown. But Singh lost everything in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

According to an account of his life shared by one Anil Madan a few years ago on Facebook, which was reposted on Twitter recently by The Better India, Paramjeet Singh lost his godown, eight autos and dealership in the 1984 riots.

He tried working with various food companies after that, but nothing worked out, so Singh decided to restart his life by driving a taxi. He bought a taxi and started a new chapter of life, but Singh was confronted with another tragedy a few years later.