RAHUL BAJAJ

About:

• A grandson of the industrialist, freedom fighter and group founder Jamnalal Bajaj, Bajaj helmed the eponymous group of companies, which have a presence across industries including automobiles, general and life insurance, and consumer finance, for almost four decades till 2005.
  
  
• After assuming a leadership role in 1965, he steered the diversified entity during India’s transition from a closed economy to a liberalised one.
  
  
• The Bajaj Chetak scooter became an aspirational symbol for middle-class Indian families, across the 1980s and ‘90s, with the ‘Hamara Bajaj’ ad jingle becoming synonymous with their hopes of a better future.
  
  
• Bajaj was elected to the Rajya Sabha in June 2006 and remained a member till 2010.
  
  
• Bajaj was a recipient of many awards, including the Padma Bhushan.
  
  
• He also held several other leadership positions, including as the chairman of the erstwhile Indian Airlines and chairman of the board of governors of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
  
  
• Bajaj was a former chairman of the International Business Council, World Economic Forum and a former president of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
  
  
• Under Bajaj’s stewardship, the first codification of corporate governance norms in the country happened way back in 1998, well before any regulation or law came into being in this important space.