Kushal Pal Singh (born 15 November 1931) is an Indian billionaire
real estate
Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...
developer, and the chairman and CEO of real estate developer
DLF Limited
Delhi Land & Finance (DLF Limited) is a commercial real estate developer. It was founded by Chaudhary Raghvendra Singh in 1946 and it is based in New Delhi, India. DLF developed residential colonies in Delhi such as, Model Town, Rajouri Garden ...
, founded by his father-in-law Chaudhary Raghvender Singh. DLF has an estimated land bank of , with about in
Gurugram
Gurgaon (pronunciation: ¡ÊŠÉ½É¡Ã£Ëw, officially named Gurugram (pronunciation: ¡ÊŠÉ¾ÊŠÉ¡É¾aËm, is a city located in the northern Indian state of Haryana. It is situated near the Delhi–Haryana border, about southwest of the nationa ...
, called DLF City.
In 2008, he was ranked the 8th richest person in the world in ''Forbes 2008''. His autobiography, named ''Whatever the Odds: The Incredible Story Behind DLF'', was published in 2011;
Jack Welch
John Francis Welch Jr. (November 19, 1935 – March 1, 2020) was an American business executive, chemical engineer, and writer. He was Chairman and CEO of General Electric (GE) between 1981 and 2001.
When Welch retired from GE, he receive ...
spoke at the launch. According to Forbes India Rich list of 2019, he is the 25th richest Indian.
Early life and career
K.P. Singh was born on 15 November 1931 in
Bulandshahr
Bulandshahr, formerly Baran, is a city and a municipal board in Bulandshahr district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. It is the administrative headquarters of Bulandshahr district and part of Delhi NCR region. According to the Government ...
,
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...
. His father, Chaudhary Mukhtar Singh, was a reputed lawyer in Bulandshahr. After graduating in science from
Meerut College
Meerut College is a state-funded college in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India. The college is affiliated to Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut. The college was established in 1892 and has a campus of . The college has glorious history of achiev ...
, Uttar Pradesh, he pursued aeronautical engineering in the UK and was subsequently selected to the
Indian Army
The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...
by British Officers Services Selection Board, UK. He was commissioned into the
Deccan Horse
The Deccan Horse or 9 Horse is one of the oldest and most decorated armoured regiments of the Indian Army. The Royal Deccan Horse (9th Horse), which was a regular cavalry regiment of the British Indian Army was formed from the amalgamation of tw ...
in 1951. In 1960 he joined American Universal Electric Company and, soon after its merger with DLF Universal Limited in 1979, he took over as the managing director with Chaudhary Raghuvender Singh.
Activities
Kushal Pal Singh constructed numerous earthquake-proof office buildings, apartments, shopping malls and leisure facilities in Gurgaon. While he was the chairman of DLF, the company went for an
initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
(IPO) in 2007 and made about
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
2.24 billion, one of the largest IPOs in India. Market capitalisation of the company increased to $24.5 billion, making Singh and his family one of the richest clans in the world. Jack Welch, the former chairman and CEO of General Electric, said in an interview that Singh was one of the initiators for GE's entry into India.
Awards and recognitions
* Decoration of Officer of the Order of St. Charles, on 4 October 2010, conferred by
Prince Albert II
Albert II – Website of the Palace of Monaco (Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi; born 14 March 1958) is Prince of Monaco, since 2005.
Albert was born at the Prince's Palace of Monaco, and he is the second child and only son of Prince Rai ...
of Monaco for his contributions as Honorary Consul General of Monaco in Delhi for the previous two decades.
* Padma Bhusan Award, on 26 January 2010, conferred by Government of India.
* Recognition by ''Forbes'' magazine as the richest real estate baron and eighth richest person in the world, on 24 March 2008.
* The Samman Patra Award, in 2000, conferred by Government of India for being one of the top taxpayers of Delhi region.
* Delhi Ratna Award, conferred by Government of Delhi for his valuable contribution towards the development of Delhi.
* A special award conferred by NDTV, at the Indian of the Year Award Function held on 17 January 2008, for his contribution towards growth of Indian economy.
* In 2011 he received the Entrepreneur of the Year award at
The Asian Awards
The Asian Awards is an annual award ceremony for the global Asian community which takes place in the United Kingdom, with 14 categories that include business, philanthropy, entertainment, culture and sport. Nominees are selected by an independen ...
.
Personal life and family
Singh is married to Indira Singh, the daughter of Raghvendra Singh, the founder of DLF Limited. K. P. Singh has one son, Rajiv Singh, and two daughters, Renuka and Pia Singh.
Singh's son, Rajiv Singh, succeeded him as the chairman of the DLF group in 2020. Rajiv's wife Kavita became an advisor to DLF Commercial Developers Ltd in November 2002. She was also appointed Advisor to DLF Universal Ltd. on 1 June 2011, with a retainership fee of Rs 250,000 per month and other benefits. Rajiv and Kavita have two daughters, both of whom work for the company. K. P. Singh's elder daughter Renuka is married to G.S. Talwar, a non-executive director at DLF Ltd. Their son, Rahul, has joined DLF India Ltd as a "senior management trainee." K.P. Singh's younger daughter Pia Singh is a full-time director with DLF.
Controversy
In April 2016, Singh's name featured in the list of high-profile names released in the
Panama Papers
The Panama Papers ( es, Papeles de Panamá) are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) that were published beginning on April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 ...
, a set of 11.5 million confidential documents created by the Panamanian corporate service provider
Mossack Fonseca
Mossack Fonseca & Co. () was a Panamanian law firm and Corporate services, corporate service provider.Rajiv Singh, his wife, his daughter Pia Singh, and her husband Timmy Sarna all set up offshore companies in the
British Virgin Islands
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through Mossack Fonseca, and are named in the Panama Papers.