This Bihar Diwas, meet the Bihari outliers who made it big in the business world

The founder and chairman of Vedanta Resources Anil Agarwal was born in Bihar capital Patna in 1954. His father had an aluminium conductor business. Agarwal decided to join his father's business instead of going to university. He left for Mumbai, then Bombay, at 19 to pursue career opportunities. He started trading in scrap metal before he acquired Shamsher Sterling Corporation with a bank loan. In 1986, he set up a factory to manufacture jelly-filled cables, creating Sterlite Industries. In 1993, Sterlite Industries became the first private sector company in India to set up a copper smelter and refinery. Vedanta Resources Plc was incorporated in 2003 in London to access international capital markets. At the time of its listing, Vedanta was the first Indian firm to be listed on London Stock Exchange. In 2003, Vedanta Resources became the parent company of the group. Of late, the billionaire has been sharing stories of his humble beginnings in Bihar and then Bombay. He tweeted about his move to Mumbai with just a tiffin box and bedclothes. He also wrote about his first flat, his first company and how he only knew two English words – yes and no – when he moved.

Sujeet Kumar

Sujeet Kumar is the co-founder of Udaan.

Bihar native Kumar, the co-founders of Udaan, quit his cushy job at Flipkart to start the online platform for businesses and shop-owners. Sujeet Kumar manages operations at the start-up that aims to be a publicly listed company in 18-24 months. Kumar has a B.Tech degree in civil engineering from IIT Delhi and ). Kumar is from Bhabua and had UPSC aspirations. He appeared for the examinations twice but couldn’t clear it. He worked at Flipkart from 2007 to 2015 as the President of Operations and was second only to founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal. Years of hardwork from Kumar and his two co-founders helped Udaan become the fastest startup to become a unicorn (a startup with a billion-dollar valuation). Udaan is the largest eB2B company in India with an 80 percent market share and over half a million products across 2,500 brands on its platform, Bernstein said in a report in February. Although equals, Kumar is the more prominent among the Udaan founders owing to his prominent Flipkart credentials. He is also an active angel investor with many lucrative bets, most notably Unacademy, where he is a board member. He also invests in startups via Tanglin Venture Partners, a venture firm where he is an investor along with Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy and Binny Bansal.

Anand Kumar

Anand Kumar's life inspired the Hindi movie ‘Super 30’ with actor Hrithik Roshan playing him.(Image credit: @teacheranand/Twitter)

Mathematician Anand Kumar set up a coaching centre for underprivileged children in Patna, Bihar in 2002 to prep them for IIT entrance examination. The ‘Super 30’ programme quickly rose to prominence. By 2018, 422 out of 510 students under Kumar had made it to the IITs and his work became widely covered by international media. Born into a family of limited means, Kumar had to let go of his admission to Cambridge University due to his father’s death and eventual financial crisis. He started teaching math in 1992 and his coaching centre quickly flourished. After an encounter with a student who couldn’t afford the classes, Kumar started the Super 30 programme a decade later. Kumar has no financial support for Super 30 from any government or private agencies, and manages on the tuition fee he earns from his existing institute that is a raging success. He does not take any money from the underprivileged students and even provides for food and lodging. Kumar has earned several accolades and spoken at MIT and Harvard University. His life inspired the Hindi movie ‘Super 30’ with actor Hrithik Roshan playing Kumar in the film.

Samprada Singh

Samprada Singh founded Alkem Laboratories with his brother in 1973. (Image credit: www.alkemlabs.com)

Jehanabad native Samprada Singh founded Alkem Laboratories with his brother Basudeo Narayan Singh, in 1973 and served as its chairman till his death in 2019. His brother is the current managing director of the company. Alkem develops, manufactures and markets pharmaceutical formulations and nutraceuticals in India. It has operations in Europe, Africa, the Asia Pacific, South America and the US as well. Singh had started out working at chemist’s store before distributing pharmaceuticals. He even got into manufacturing in Mumbai before it shut down and he started Alkem. The company became massive, clocked millions in revenues and turned Singh and his brothers into billionaires. Singh has featured several times on Forbes’ richest Indian lists. He died in July 2019 at the age of 94.