Dilip Shanghvi (born 1 October 1955) is an Indian

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

businessman and one of the country's richest people. He founded

Sun Pharmaceuticals The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radia ...

. The

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

awarded him the civilian honour of the

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, ...

in 2016. ''

India Today ''India Today'' is a weekly Indian English-language news magazine published by Living Media India Limited. It is the most widely circulated magazine in India, with a readership of close to 8 million. In 2014, ''India Today'' launched a new onl ...

'' magazine ranked him 8th in India's most powerful people of 2017 list. According to ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'', as of October 2021, Shanghvi is the 14th richest person in India with a net worth of US$14.3 billion.

Early life

Shanghvi hails from a

Jain Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...

family settled in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

. He was born in the small town of

Amreli Amreli is a city and a municipality in Amreli district in Indian state of Gujarat. History It is believed that during 534 AD Amreli existed was formerly known as Anumanji, Amlik and then Amravati. The city is named in ancient Gujrati as ''A ...

in the Indian state of

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

, the son of Shantilal Shanghvi and his wife Kumud Shanghvi. Shanghvi earned a

Bachelor of Commerce A Bachelor of Commerce (abbreviated BComm or BCom; also, ''baccalaureates commercii'') is an undergraduate degree in business, usually awarded in Canada, Australia, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Ireland, New Zealand, Ghana, South Africa, Myanmar, ...

degree from the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate State university (India), state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered ...

. He spent his childhood and college life with his parents in the

Burrabazar Burrabazar (also spelt ''Bara Bazar'') is a neighbourhood of Central-North Kolkata, in Kolkata district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Bazar Kolkata In between Sutanuti haat made way for Bazar Kolkata, some time in the 18th century. The ...

locality of Kolkata. He is an alumnus of J. J. Ajmera High School and

Bhawanipur Education Society College Bhawanipur Education Society College (or Bhawanipur College) is a private, co-educational, undergraduate college affiliated with the University of Calcutta in Kolkata, India. It is at 5, Lala Lajpat Rai Sarani (Elgin Road) of the Bhowanipore are ...

, where he did his schooling and graduation, respectively.

Career

Shanghvi started by helping his father in his business, which was a wholesale dealership of medicines, mainly generic drugs, in

. It was during this work that he thought of manufacturing his own drugs instead of selling products made by others. In 1982, the 27-year-old Shanghvi finally opened his first manufacturing unit with a capital of INR 10,000. He named his venture Sun Pharmaceutical Industries. The unit, located in

Vapi Vapi ( IAST: vāpī,), is a city and municipality in Valsad district in the state of Gujarat, India.It is situated near the banks of the Daman Ganga River, around 28 km south of the district headquarters in the city of Valsad, and it is ...

in his native state of

, a short drive away from

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

, produced exactly one psychiatry drug. However, the business soon picked up, thanks to Shanghvi's acumen and energy, and by 1997, Sun Pharma was even able to acquire Caraco Pharma, an American company. Sun also acquired Israel's Taro Pharma in 2007. Shanghvi stepped down as chairman and CEO in 2012 and chose Israel Makov, formerly CEO of

Teva Pharmaceuticals Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (also known as Teva Pharmaceuticals) is an Israeli multinational pharmaceutical company with headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel. It specializes primarily in generic drugs, but other business interests include ...

, as his successor; Shanghvi became managing director. In April 2014 Sun,

Ranbaxy Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited was an Indian multinational pharmaceutical company that was incorporated in India in 1961 and remained an entity until 2014. The company went public in 1973. Ownership of Ranbaxy changed twice over the course of its ...

, and

Daiichi Sankyo is a global pharmaceutical company and the second-largest pharmaceutical company in Japan. It achieved JPY 981.8 billion in revenue in 2019. The company owns the American biotechnology company Plexxikon, American pharmaceutical company American R ...

(the majority shareholder in Ranbaxy) agreed that Sun would acquire all outstanding shares of Ranbaxy for $3.2 billion in Sun stock and that Sun would take on $800M in Ranbaxy debt; the deal closed in March 2015 and made Sun the largest drug company in India and fifth largest in the world, and made Daiichi the second-largest shareholder in Sun.Eric Palmer for FiercePharma Mar 26, 201
Deal done, Sun Pharma must now fix Ranbaxy's deep problems
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Community

In January 2018, the Indian government appointed Shanghvi to the

Reserve Bank of India The Reserve Bank of India, chiefly known as RBI, is India's central bank and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It is responsible for ...

's 21-member central board committee. He is chairman of the board of governors at

IIT Bombay The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay or IITB) is a public research university and technical institute in Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is considered as one of the best engineering universities in India and is top ranked ...

. He was made a trustee of the

Rhodes scholarship The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

programme at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

in 2017.

Personal life

He is married to Vibha Shanghvi. They have a son, Aalok and a daughter, Vidhi, both of whom work for

Book

In 2019, journalist Soma Das authored ''The Reluctant Billionaire'', the first and only biography of Dilip Shanghvi. Published by Penguin Random House, the book was nominated for Tata Literature Award in the Best Business Book category in November 2019.

References