The Bajaj Group is set to kick off a series of events to mark the birth centenary of its late patriarch Kamalnayan Bajaj which falls on January 23. He is credited with laying the foundation for what is now an over Rs 1,30,000 crore-strong (by market cap) business Group.

A biography titled Kamalnayan Bajaj: Architect of the Bajaj Group, written by Gita Piramal will be released to mark the occasion. On January 23, a film dedicated to his life and work will be screened at Bajaj Bhavan, the Group’s headquarters at Nariman Point in Mumbai. The same will also host an eight-day exhibition of photographs that will thereafter travel to the group’s offices across the country.

Known as Kakaji, Kamalnayan, father of industrialist Rahul Bajaj, was just 27 when he took over the reins of the family businesses in 1942, following the untimely demise of his father Jamnalal.

“In 1942, the family bank account held barely Rs 3.5 lakh, group sales were less than Rs. 1 crore, and about 200 people worked in ginning and pressing mills. By 1972 when he died, sales were Rs 76.24 crore and profits Rs. 8.41 crore,” Piramal writes in her book.

“Kakaji transformed us from a successful and reputed cotton trading group to an industrial group with a profit before tax of Rs 8000 crore,” Rahul Bajaj says. The diversification across segments like motorcycles, insurance and finance was built on the foundation he had laid, he adds.

The Bajaj Group here refers to companies headed by Rahul (Bajaj Auto, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance), his three cousins Niraj (Mukand Steel), Shekhar (Bajaj Electricals) and Madhur and Khopoli-based Group firm Hercules Hoists.

On January 31, a function has been organised for all the descendants of Kamalnayan, Niraj Bajaj, CMD, Mukand Ltd reveals.

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