Meet Lachhman, India’s oldest billionaire who started career as insurance agent

Mittal, 92, is the founder and chairman of Sonalika Group. He began his career as an insurance agent.

Born in 1931 in Hoshiarpur, Punjab, Mittal recounted an incident in an old interview with Business Standard. He told The daily, “Once I applied for a dealership of Maruti Udyog but was rejected. Today, I give out dealerships”.

However, after six years of retirement from the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), Mittal started his entrepreneurship journey at age of 65.

According to Forbes, Mittal retired from LIC as deputy zonal manager in 1990. And, six years later, he founded Sonalika Group, which is India’s third-largest tractor maker by market share.

Sonalika Tractors has turned Mittal into India’s oldest billionaire – his net worth is $2.5 billion today.

Mittal stepped down from the day-to-day running of Sonalika Group. Now his son oversees the company’s operations. Mittal’s eldest son Amrit Sagar is the company’s vice-chairman, while his youngest son Deepak is the managing director. His second son is a doctor in New York.

Interestingly, Mittal’s family still has a deeper connection with LIC– his daughter Usha Sangawan is LIC’s first female managing director.

On 12 April, Keshub Mahindra, a pioneer of the Indian auto industry, died in Mumbai.

Keshub had led the Mahindra Group for 48 years as Chairman and expanded it from being an automobile manufacturer to other business segments like IT, real estate, financial services, and hospitality.

He played key roles in forging business alliances with global majors such as the Willys Corporation, Mitsubishi, International Harvester, United Technologies, British Telecom, and many others.

Born on October 9, 1923, in Shimla, Keshub was a graduate from Wharton, University of Pennsylvania, USA, and joined M&M in 1947 and became the Chairman in 1963.

In 2012, Keshub Mahindra handed over the baton to his nephew and the then Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Anand Mahindra.

A renowned philanthropist, Keshub redefined good corporate governance in India. He was also a member of the Apex Advisory Council of ASSOCHAM. In 1987, he was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Legion d’honneur by the French government.