Desh Bandhu Gupta (8 February 1938 – 26 June 2017) was an Indian billionaire, philanthropist, entrepreneur and the founder of
Lupin Limited, a multinational pharmaceutical company. At the time of his death, his net worth was estimated at US$3.6 billion.
Early life
Gupta was born on 8 February 1938 in
Rajgarh, Alwar
Rajgarh is a town and a tehsil in Alwar district in the Indian state of Rajasthan. Bhangarh, Asia's most haunted place, is also present in Rajgarh, Alwar tehsil. It is a small town set in scenic hills dotted with forts, and features waterfalls, ...
,
Rajasthan.
He was the eldest of the five siblings.
He earned a master's degree in chemistry from
Bombay University.
Career
Gupta started his career as an associate professor at the
Birla Institute of Technology and Science
Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani (BITS Pilani) is a Deemed university in Pilani, Jhunjhunu, India. It focuses primarily on higher education and research in engineering and sciences. After expansion to a campus in Dubai, it has b ...
,
Pilani, Rajasthan. He quit teaching and decided to be an entrepreneur as he was "not able to implement ideas into practice".
He moved to Bombay (now
Mumbai) and worked in a small British pharmaceutical manufacturing company.
He founded Lupin in 1968 with a start-up capital of 5000 borrowing the money from his wife. The first office of Lupin was rented premises in Central Mumbai used for dispatching medicines. Later, with a loan of 8
lakh
A lakh (; abbreviated L; sometimes written lac) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; scientific notation: 105). In the Indian 2,2,3 convention of digit grouping, it is written as 1,00,000. For ex ...
from
Central Bank of India, he started a factory whose major order was to provide iron and folic acid tablets to the Government of India programmes related to mother and child healthcare.
Under his leadership, Lupin became a global pharmaceutical company by entering markets across the globe including US and Japan.
Gupta set up the Lupin Human Welfare & Research Foundation (LHWRF) in October 1988.
LHWRF was set up with the objective of creating a reproducible and evolving model for sustainable rural development with a simple goal of uplifting families living below the poverty line in rural India.
This vision of rural development focuses on holistic development programs that systematically create opportunities and infrastructure, while empowering people in rural areas, to bring about a socio-economic change and ensure the inclusion of rural communities in the nation's economic progress. Nationally, the Lupin Foundation impacts the lives of 2.8 million people living in about 3,500 villages spread across 9 states – Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Jammu, Andhra Pradesh, and Sikkim.
Gupta was the recipient of an
Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for 2011 in the healthcare sector, and a Frost & Sullivan Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013. In April 2018, he was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame at the CNBC TV18 India Business Leader Awards 2018.
In 2015, ''
Forbes'' estimated Gupta's net worth at $7.2 billion, making him the 254th richest person in the world.
Personal life
Gupta was married to Manju and lived in Mumbai. He is survived by his wife and five children: four daughters and one son.
[ Their daughter Vinita D. Gupta is based in United States and is the Group President & CEO and son ]Nilesh Gupta
Nilesh Gupta (born 1974) is an Indian businessman, the managing director (MD) of Lupin Limited since September 2013.
Early life
He is the only son of Desh Bandhu Gupta, who founded Lupin in 1968. His eldest sister, Vinita D. Gupta, is the CEO.
...
is the Managing Director based in India.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gupta, Desh Bandhu
1938 births
2017 deaths
Indian businesspeople in the pharmaceutical industry
Marwari people
Indian billionaires
Businesspeople from Mumbai