Founder of Sahara Group Subrata Roy dies at 75 after prolonged illness

Subrata Roy, the founder of Sahara India Pariwar, passed away on Wednesday, November 14. He was 75. He was undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Mumbai for a long time.

Born on June 10, 1948, in Araria, Bihar, Roy was a prominent figure in the Indian business landscape, having established a vast empire that spanned various sectors including finance, real estate, media, and hospitality.

Roy's journey began with his education in mechanical engineering from the Government Technical Institute in Gorakhpur. He ventured into business in Gorakhpur before taking over Sahara Finance, a struggling chit fund company, in 1976. By 1978, he had transformed it into Sahara India Pariwar, which would grow to become one of India's largest



conglomerates.

Under Roy's leadership, Sahara expanded into numerous businesses. The group launched the Hindi language newspaper Rashtriya Sahara in 1992, initiated the ambitious Aamby Valley City project near Pune in the late 1990s, and entered the television space with Sahara TV, later renamed Sahara One. In the 2000s, Sahara made international headlines with the acquisition of iconic properties such as London's Grosvenor House Hotel and New York City's Plaza Hotel.

Sahara India Pariwar was once hailed by Time magazine as the second-largest employer in India after Indian Railways, boasting a workforce of around 1.2 million people. The group claimed to have more than 9 crore investors, representing a significant portion of Indian households.