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SWRAJ PAUL
Business Magnate
Lord Swraj Paul, the great business magnate was
born in 1931 in Jalandhar, Punjab. Having learned business lessons from his
father at a young age, he later founded the successful multinational company
Caparo, an UK-based steel and engineering group.
Swraj was educated at Punjab University and obtained a master's degree in
mechanical
engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US.
In 1953 he returned to India to join the Apeejay Surrendra Group, founded by
his father, which he helped build up to a diversified industrial group.
Swraj went to England in 1966 hoping to find a cure for his
leukemia-stricken two-year-old daughter, Ambika. Shattered by her death, he
buried himself in work and there began his spectacular business career in
Britain.
In 1968, he started buying and selling steel in a one-man business and
acquired a small tube unit, Natural Gas Tubes (NGT), which developed into
one of the leading UK producers of welded steel tube and spiral welded pipe.
Gradually he bought more units, mainly in the steel products manufacturing
industry and founded Caparo Group in 1978. Her Majesty the Queen knighted
Swraj Paul in the same year, thereby making him The Lord Paul of Marylebone
and a member of the House of Lords.
Lord Paul has been honoured by various international organisations over the
years. He has written the biography of Indira Gandhi and was awarded the
Padma Bhushan by her in 1983. Among the honours bestowed on him are the
Pro-Chancellorship of the Thames University (1998) and its Governorship
(1992-97), Chancellorship of Wolverhampton University and the Bharat Gaurav
award by the Indian Merchant's Chamber. He is a member of the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office's Foreign Policy Centre Advisory Council and MIT's
Mechanical Engineering Visiting Committee.
Swraj stepped down from the management of Caparo in 1996, handing over his
empire to his three sons. Though he is one of the richest persons in the
U.K., in his personal life Lord Paul practices relative simplicity. But he
believes in making money so that he can occasionally use it to help the
needy or even bail out the London Zoo.
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