Anglo-Indian transnational conglomerate based in Mumbai
Hinduja Group is an Indian transnational conglomerate.[3] The group is present in eleven sectors including automotive, oil and specialty chemicals, banking and finance, IT and ITeS, cyber security, healthcare, trading, infrastructure project development, media and entertainment, power, and real estate. The Hinduja brothers have around US$100 billion of assets around the world. The Hinduja family has around US$5billion of assets in America. The 2022 net worth of the Hinduja brothers was US$32 billion, making them the wealthiest people in the United Kingdom.[4][5] In May 2023, company patriarch Srichand Hinduja died.
History
The company was founded in 1914 by Parmanand Deepchand Hinduja, who was from a Sindhi family based in India.[6] Initially operating in Shikarpur (in modern-day Pakistan) and Bombay, India, he set up the company's first international operation in Iran in 1919. The headquarters of the group remained in Iran until 1979, when the Islamic Revolution forced it to move to Europe.[7][8]
Group Chairman Srichand Hinduja and his brother Gopichand, also Co-Chairman, moved to London in 1979 to develop the export business; the third brother Prakash manages the group's operations in Geneva, Switzerland while the youngest brother, Ashok, oversees the Indian interests.[9]
The group employs over 200,000 people and has offices in many major cities around the world including in India.[2] In 2017, Srichand and Gopichand Hinduja were described as the wealthiest men in Britain with an estimated wealth of £16.2 billion in the Sunday Times Rich List 2017.[10]
In 2015, at The Asian Awards, the Hinduja brothers were honoured with the Business Leader of the Year Award.[11] Ashok Hinduja was felicitated with the ABLF Global Asian Award at the UAE Government-backed Asian Business Leadership Forum in 2017. OneOTT Intertainment Limited (OIL), the Media Vertical arm of Hinduja Group, was awarded the 2019 Innovation Leaders award by Telecomlead.com.[12]
In May 2023, lead Hinduja chair Srichand Hinduja died in London at the age of 87.[13]
Controversies
Bofors scandal
Srichand, Gopichand and Prakash Hinduja were connected with the investigation into the Bofors scandal, in which Swedish firm Bofors was alleged to have paid illegal bribes to government officials and politicians in connection with the US$1.3 billion sale of 400 howitzers to the Indian Government in 1986. The three brothers were charged by the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation in October 2000,[16] but in 2005 the High Court in Delhi threw out all charges against them, citing a lack of evidence and saying that documents central to the prosecution case were "useless and dubious" since their provenance could not be verified. Judge RS Sodhi said: "I must express my disapproval that 14 years of trial and ₹2.5 billion (US$31 million) of public money was spent on the case. It has caused huge economical, emotional, professional and personal loss to the Hindujas."[17]
2001 Hinduja affair
In January 2001, it was revealed that UK government Minister Peter Mandelson had telephoned Home Office minister Mike O'Brien on behalf of Srichand Hinduja, who was at the time seeking British citizenship, and whose family firm was to become the main sponsor of the "Faith Zone" in the Millennium Dome. Consequently, on 24 January 2001 Mandelson resigned from the Government for a second time,[18][19] insisting he had done nothing wrong. An independent enquiry by Sir Anthony Hammond came to the conclusion that neither Mandelson nor anyone else had acted improperly.
In January 2001, immigration minister Barbara Roche revealed in a written Commons reply that Keith Vaz, Member of Parliament for Leicester East and at the time a Foreign Office minister, and other MPs, had also contacted the Home Office about the Hinduja brothers, saying that Vaz had made inquiries about when a decision on their application for citizenship could be expected.[20]
On 25 January, Vaz became the focus of Opposition questions about the Hinduja affair and many parliamentary questions were tabled, demanding that he fully disclose his role. Vaz said via a Foreign Office spokesman that he would be "fully prepared" to answer questions put to him by Sir Anthony Hammond QC who had been asked by the Prime Minister to carry out an inquiry into the affair. Vaz said that he had known the Hinduja brothers for some time; he had been present when the charitable Hinduja Foundation was set up in 1993, and had also delivered a speech in 1998 when the brothers invited Tony and Cherie Blair to a Diwali celebration.[21]
On 26 January 2001, Prime Minister Tony Blair was accused of prejudicing the independent inquiry into the Hinduja passport affair, after he declared that Keith Vaz had not done "anything wrong". On the same day, Vaz told reporters that they would "regret" their behaviour once the facts of the case were revealed. "Some of you are going to look very foolish when this report comes out. Some of the stuff you said about Peter, and about others and me, you'll regret very much when the facts come out," he said. When asked why the passport application of one of the Hinduja brothers had been processed more quickly than normal, being processed and sanctioned in six months when the process can take up to two years, he replied, "It is not unusual."[22]
On 29 January, the government confirmed that the Hinduja Foundation had held a reception for Vaz in September 1999 to celebrate his appointment as the first Asian Minister in recent times. The party was not listed by Vaz in the House of Commons Register of Members' Interests and John Redwood, then head of the Conservative Parliamentary Campaigns Unit, questioned Vaz's judgement in accepting the hospitality.[23]
In March, Vaz was ordered to fully co-operate with a new inquiry launched into his financial affairs by Elizabeth Filkin, who was Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards at the time. Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, Vaz's superior, also urged him to fully answer allegations about his links with the Hinduja brothers. Mr Vaz met Mrs Filkin on 20 March to discuss a complaint that the Hinduja Foundation had given the sum of £1,200 to Mapesbury Communications, a company run by his wife, in return for helping to organise a Hinduja-sponsored reception at the House of Commons. Vaz had previously denied receiving money from the Hindujas, but insisted that he made no personal gain from the transaction in question.[24][25]
In June 2001, Vaz admitted that he had made representations during the Hinduja brothers' applications for British citizenship while a backbench MP. Tony Blair also admitted that Vaz had "made representations" on behalf of other Asians.[26] On 11 June 2001 Vaz was dismissed from his post as Europe Minister, to be replaced by Peter Hain. The Prime Minister's office said that Vaz had written to Tony Blair stating he wished to stand down for health reasons.[27]
In December 2001, Elizabeth Filkin cleared Vaz of failing to register payments to his wife's law firm by the Hinduja brothers, but said that he had colluded with his wife to conceal the payments. Filkin's report said that the payments had been given to his wife for legal advice on immigration issues and concluded that Vaz had gained no direct personal benefit, and that Commons rules did not require him to disclose payments made to his wife. She did, however, criticise him for his secrecy, saying, "It is clear to me there has been deliberate collusion over many months between Mr Vaz and his wife to conceal this fact and to prevent me from obtaining accurate information about his possible financial relationship with the Hinduja family".[28]
Ashok Leyland
In February 2005 Ashok Leyland, an India-based flagship company of the brothers' Hinduja Group, announced an agreement to supply 100 army vehicles to the Sudanese Defence Ministry. It was alleged by arms campaigner Mark Thomas that this contravened UK arms export legislation, as a number of the company's directors were UK residents or citizens.[29]
US$70 Billion (2022)[1]
