Subrata Roy

Subrata Roy (born 10 June 1948) is an Indian businessman. He is the founder and chairman of the Sahara India, an Indian conglomerate with diversified businesses and ownership interests that include London's Grosvenor House, New York's Plaza Hotel, Aamby Valley City and Force India. Roy founded the company in 1978.He was named among the 10 Most Powerful People of India in 2012 by India Today. In 2004, the group was termed by the Time magazine as ‘the second largest employer in India' after the Indian Railways. He has been in Tihar Jail since 2014.

Subrata Roy was born in Araria in Bihar, India 1948 to Sudhir Chandra Roy and Srimati Chhabi Roy. He studied at Holy Child School in Kolkata and later studied mechanical engineering from Government Technical Institute, Gorakhpur.Roy started his first business in Gorakhpur.

Roy joined Sahara Finance, a struggling company, in 1978, that ran a chit fund and took it over. He changed its financial model. Sahara is said to have used the financial model of much older Peerless Group. They are termed residuary non-banking companies (RNBCs) that accept deposits of very low amounts.

In the 1990s, Roy moved to Lucknow which became the base of his empire. His Sahara City project covering 170 acres was launched in the 1990s. From there, it went on to become the largest conglomerate of India with a diversified range of business interests. The company now has interests in real estate, media, entertainment, tourism, healthcare, and hospitality.

The Hindi newspaper Rashtriya Sahara was started in 1992. In the late 1990s, the ambitious Aamby Valley City project near Pune was initiated. In 2000, Sahara TV was launched which was later renamed Sahara One. In 2003, Sahara started three weeklies: Sahara Time (English), Sahara Samay (Hindi) and Sahara Aalmi (Urdu).

In 2010, Sahara purchased the iconic Grosvenor House Hotel in London, and 2012 the historic Plaza Hotel in New York City.

Sahara claims to have a workforce of more than a million, including salaried employees and field workers. In 2013, 121,653 of its employees gathered in Lucknow to sing India's national anthem, setting a world record

Sahara is said to have 29.6 million investors, representing about 8.5% of all households in India.