Lakshaman Dass Mittal

Lakshaman Dass Mittal

Chairman, Sonalika Group, and Consul General, Republic of Macedonia

Age: 75
1962: Makes a wheat thresher with the help of local blacksmiths in Hoshiarpur
1963: The family goes bankrupt
1970: The net worth of three generations of Mittals - clothes included - touches Rs 100,000
Now: Owns the Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) Sonalika Group, whose tractor plant is certified by Washington-based Environment Protection Agency

Some 44 years ago, Lakshaman Dass Mittal stood lamenting before his friend from the Ludhiana Agriculture University. "Achchha faida hua teri dosti ka (nice reward I have reaped for being your friend)." The Mittal family, which had been led by the young Lakshaman Dass into putting all its money, and that borrowed from friends and relatives, in making wheat threshers, had just gone bankrupt.

The machines, returned by the farmers, had been assembled by local blacksmiths who had copied the rice thresher at the university. Mittal's father was a foodgrain and seed dealer who made his money by sharing in the produce of the farmers.

ince it took up to two months to separate the grain from the chaff using bullocks, the harvested crop was susceptible to the vagaries of the weather. When storm or rain destroyed it, the young Mittal would hear his father sob through the night. The solution lay in quicker threshing, which could only be done by a machine, of which there was none.

The university friend, reeling under the charge, managed to identify the problem. The blacksmiths had installed straight cutters on the machine, not curved, as they should have been. Mittal persuaded more money out of family and friends and made the threshers all over again.

This time, they took off. Success bred more adventure in the form of forays into other farm implements. In 1970, three generations of the Mittals danced with joy when they sat down to count their wealth, clothes thrown in, and found it to have touched Rs 100,000.

The inevitable extension to making tractors happened in 1996 and, recently, the group launched a multi-utility passenger carrier, in collaboration of MG Rover of the UK. "I have seen the worst in life. As a child I had weak eyesight, but could not afford spectacles. So, I sat as close to the blackboard in class as possible. Often, the teachers would rebuke me," says Mittal. Today, a large monitor on his desk shows the goings-on in various parts of the office.

"Once I applied for dealership of Maruti Udyog but was rejected. Today, I give out dealerships"