Shashikant Ruia, patriarch of Essar Group, passes away at 81

Related

Share

Shashikant Ruia, the patriarch of the Ruia household and co-founder of the Essar Group, has handed away on the age of 81, relations mentioned on Tuesday.

Late Shashikant Ruia. (Photograph from X)

“It is with profound grief that we inform of the passing of Shri Shashikant Ruia, patriarch of the Ruia and Essar Family. He was 81. With an unwavering commitment to community upliftment and philanthropy, he touched millions of lives leaving an enduring impact. His humility, warmth, and ability to connect with everyone he met, made him a truly exceptional leader,” the Ruia household and Essar Group mentioned in an announcement.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi too expressed condolences and remembered Ruia as a “colossal figure in the world of industry”.

“Shri Shashikant Ruia Ji was a colossal figure in the world of industry. His visionary leadership and unwavering commitment to excellence transformed the business landscape of India. He also set high benchmarks for innovation and growth. He was always full of ideas, always discussing how we can make our country better. Shashi Ji’s demise is deeply saddening. My deepest condolences to his family and loved ones in this hour of grief. Om Shanti,” PM Modi mentioned.

Born in Rajasthan in 1943 right into a household with a powerful entrepreneurial custom, Shashi Ruia pursued his training in mechanical engineering from the School of Engineering, Guindy in Chennai.

A visionary businessman who reworked a small buying and selling enterprise into a world conglomerate, Ruia was instrumental in constructing Essar Group right into a diversified powerhouse, spanning vitality, metal, ports, telecommunications, and infrastructure sectors. Collectively together with his brother Ravi, he began his entrepreneurial journey in 1969 with the development of an outer breakwater at Chennai Port.

Recognising India’s financial potential, Ruia was fast to grab alternatives throughout financial liberalisation within the early nineties, constructing companies that spanned total worth chains — from ore to metal, crude to grease retail. His visionary method targeted on creating complete ecosystems and end-to-end options that reworked particular person industrial segments into interconnected enterprise landscapes.

Amongst Ruia’s most important contributions was to the metal business. In 1996, Ruia established an built-in metal advanced at Hazira, Gujarat, with a manufacturing capability of 10 million tonnes each year (MTPA). The undertaking coated iron ore fines to completed metal manufacturing, growing specialised metal grades for protection and industrial sectors.

Within the refining sector, Ruia recognized Jamnagar, Gujarat as a strategic location, establishing a 20 MTPA refinery. This undertaking expanded Essar’s presence throughout exploration, manufacturing, and petroleum product retailing.

Essar went on to change into the biggest coal mattress methane (CBM) operator in India. Within the energy sector, the corporate invested $4.2 billion to develop over 5,000 MW of technology capability throughout a number of places, together with important transmission infrastructure.

In telecommunications, Essar was among the many early entrants in cellular companies in the course of the Nineteen Nineties. The corporate manufactured cellular handsets and partnered with international telecommunications gamers like Hutchinson, reaching a subscriber base of 28 million earlier than exiting the enterprise.

Forbes named the Ruia brothers because the world’s richest Indians in 2012 with a internet value of USD 7 billion.

Underneath mounting monetary stress, the Essar Group underwent a major asset divestment course of. The group’s prized oil refinery in Vadinar was offered to a consortium led by Russia’s Rosneft in a transaction valued round $13 billion.

Just a few years later, the group’s metal plant at Hazira was transferred to a consortium led by ArcelorMittal following insolvency proceedings to recuperate substantial unpaid loans. This sale was a part of the broader decision of the group’s monetary challenges beneath the Insolvency and Chapter Code.

Ruia held important management positions throughout outstanding nationwide and worldwide enterprise our bodies. He was a member of the Prime Minister’s Indo-US CEO’s Discussion board and India-Japan Enterprise Council. He was a former president of the Indian Nationwide Shipowners Affiliation (INSA) and Chairman of the Indo-US Joint Enterprise Council. Moreover, he served on the managing committee of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Trade (FICCI), a key commerce and enterprise affiliation.

In his later years, Shashi Ruia targeted on reworking Essar’s portfolio from carbon-intensive industries to scrub vitality options. He invested in inexperienced applied sciences together with hydrogen, LNG, and renewable vitality sources, creating infrastructure for future generations.