Rahul Bajaj was born on 10 June 1938. Son of an Indian independence fighter Jamnalal Bajaj, his birth happened in a Marwari family.
In 2001, Rahul Bajaj got the highest civilian award in the country Padma Bhushan.
Rahul Bajaj spoke at length about the marketing scenario in India in an interview connected with a project entitled Creating Emerging Markets at the Harvard Business School and thoroughly criticized the industrial policies of the country before liberalization in the 1990s.
Bajaj did his schooling in Cathedral and John Connon School and studied law at Government Law College, Mumbai. He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School in the US and St. Stephen's College, Delhi.
Rahul Bajaj took over the Bajaj Group in 1965 and gave a wonderful leadership to the entity till 2005. Following him, his son Rajiv became the managing director of the Group. He became the CEO of Bajaj Auto in 1968 when he was just 30 years.
Rahul Babaj got elected to the Upper House of the Parliament for the period between 2006 and 2010.
His wealth is estimated at US$ 4.2 in the year 2019. Earlier in 2016, the Forbes magazine ranked him in the 722nd position in the list of world’s billionaires.
Rahul Bajaj has three children. His sons Rajiv Bajaj and Sanjiv Bajaj are managing his establishments. His daughter Sunaina is given in marriage to Manish Kejriwal, the former chairman of Temasek India.
The Pune based manufacturer has his stakes in firms including Bajaj Holdings and Investments, an investment company, and Bajaj Finserv, which is a leading insurance and consumer finance group in India.
The major chunk of Rahul Bajaj’s wealth comes from the company Bajaj Group that was established in the year 1926 by his grandfather Jamnalal.
He has a significant investment in Bajaj Auto, one of the largest makers of two wheelers in the world. In 2018, the company made a revenue of 247 billion rupees.
Rahul Bajaj has 10% stake in Bajaj Finserv, an insurance and consumer finance provider and 24% stake in Bajaj Holdings & Investment, the holding company, which fall under the Bajaj Group. His other holdings are 2% stake in Bajaj Finance, 14% stake in Bajaj Electrical, a home appliance maker and 19% stake in Mukand, manufacturer of wire rods, alloy castings and steel bars.
Pointing out that business was in his blood, Rahul Bajaj once said in an interview at the Harvard Business School, “Given my family background, I knew I wanted to be a businessman by the time I was about 12”.
In 2008, he split the Bajaj Auto into three units for the sake of boosting the shareholder’s returns and provided more control in the management to his sons Rajiv and Sanjiv.