Lalit Jalan

Lalit Kumar Jalan[1]
Born (1956-09-23) 23 September 1956
Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Residence Mumbai, Maharashtra
Nationality Indian
Ethnicity Marwari
Alma mater The Wharton School, Moore School of Engineering , IIT Kanpur
Occupation Director of Corporate Strategy and Affairs of Reliance Infrastructure ( Formerly CEO of Reliance Infrastructure & Chairman of BSES and Director of several firms registered in Kolkata)
Spouse(s) Anita Jalan
Children Akshay Jalan & Varun Jalan
Website www.lalitjalan.in/lalitjalan/home.do

Lalit Jalan (no relation to Bimal Jalan, former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India) is the Director of Corporate Strategy and Affairs from 7 July 2014[2] to steer future growth initiatives and was for about seven years the CEO of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, part of the Reliance (Anil Ambani) Group, one of India’s largest corporate houses.[3] He was relegated to the post of CEO from the Board level Director position in Reliance Infra as per the decision taken during the financial year ending March 2013.[4][5][6] Apart from his major responsibilities in the Reliance group owned by Anil Ambani, he is also a Director of several other firms which are from his native town Kolkata and some bear his family name "Jalan" (for example Jalan Brothers Private Limited (CIN U17299WB1941PTC010594), Jalan Properties Private Limited, Jalan Infosystems Private Limited, Jalan Reality Private Limited, Data Ware Private Limited, Sunrise Engineering Private Limited, Shree Amrit Properties and Investment Private limited, Devine Dealers Private Limited, Data Management Systems Private Limited and Integrated Bureau and Maintenance Private Limited), which are not part of the Reliance Group or belonging to Anil Ambani.(Source Registrar of Companies, Kolkata where these companies are registered). He continues to hold the post of Chairman, BSES Rajdhani & BSES Yamuna Pvt. Ltd, the Electricity Distribution companies in Joint Venture with Government of New Delhi though the CEOs of these companies are removed frequently facing mismanagement of the Power Distribution System very often in the last 12 years.[7][8][9] RInfra is one of India's largest integrated infrastructure company developing projects, through various Special Purpose Vehicles, in several high growth areas in the infrastructure sector including power, roads, metro, cement and EPC.[10]

Lalit Jalan joined Reliance Industries Limited as Chief Executive Officer, Polypropylene Business in 1995. At 39, he was the youngest ever CEO at Reliance.

Jalan is a B. Tech from IIT – Kanpur in 1979. He did an MBA (Finance) from Wharton School and MS (Computer Science) from Moore School of Engineering, (where the first computer was built in 1945), University of Pennsylvania, 1982.

Early life

Lalit Jalan was born in Kolkata in a Marwari family. He did his schooling from St. Xaviers School during the early 1970s.

Personal life

Lalit Jalan

Lalit Jalan resides in Mumbai with his family which includes his parents, wife Anita who is a fashion designer and two sons, who are also Wharton graduates and handle his family business.[11]

Career

Nothing is much known of the career of Jalan from 1979 to 1996 except that he claims to have started his career at General Electric as a Strategic Planner where he learnt the ropes from Jack Welch at his peak.[12] and having worked there for two years, he returned to India and joined his own family venture - ‘Jalan Brothers’( a distributor of plastic products( PVC, HDPE, LLDPE) )[13] in his hometown Kolkata. Jalan claims to have turned it into a Rs 250-crore business before acceding to his Wharton School batchmate Anil Ambani’s wish to join the Reliance Industries Limited. Jalan’s entrepreneurial experience, during which he tried almost everything from real estate, software, logistics, distribution to even cement, is now an over Rs 1,000-crore business looked after by his son.[14]

In 1995, Jalan joined Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) as the Head of Polypropylene business. Jalan made the fastest ‘billion dollar hit’ in the industry by ramping up the business from zero to a billion dollars in 42 months flat, despite having no background in the petrochemicals industry. He also served as Head of the E-business at RIL, where he initiated practices such as e-procurement and SAP within the group.[15]

Jalan has served Reliance Group in many roles, including holding charge as CEO of RInfra’s Delhi power distribution company, where he reduced power theft from 55% to 4-5% and turned around its operations. At 39, he was the youngest ever CEO at a Reliance company.[16]

From 2003 onwards, Jalan has led the metamorphosis of Reliance Energy, a plain vanilla distribution company into the over Rs 23000 crore RInfra. Today RInfra is India’s largest integrated infrastructure development firm with interests in power, roads, metros, airports, cement and other urban infrastructure projects with a turnover exceeding $4.5 billion.[17]

Controversies

The areas of oversight given to Lalit Jalan in Reliance Group of Anil Ambani ( Called ADAG) have had their good share of controversies and complications. Power Distribution Companies in New Delhi: BSES Yamuna and BSES Rajdhani Power companies for which Lalit Jalan has been the Chairman are always centre of controversies be it excess energy metering,[18] removal of CEOs frequently and the recent controversy about CAG audit ordered by the Govt of New Delhi ( When Arvind Kejriwal was the Chief Minister)[19] and threat of Revocation of License and Non Payment of dues to Power Suppliers like NTPC.[20][21]

Delhi Airport Metro

The prestigious Delhi Airport Metro line got into disputes and arbitration. Initially the then chief of DMRC Mr Sreedharan was quite unhappy with the quality of service, noise levels and subsequently due to several issues the concessionnaire had asked for exiting from the project.[22][23]

Controversial Suggestions

In the Wharton India Economic Forum in 2012 held in Mumbai Lalit Jalan went on to suggest a "Ministry of Infrstaructure" be created which got criticism from leading newspapers and Financial Times wrote "Lalit Jalan, CEO of Reliance Infrastructure, suggested that the government create a “ministry of infrastructure”, one presumably made up of bureaucrats to add to the 10m-plus that currently run the state and central governments." Unquote.[24]

Settlement with Indian Stock Market Regulator

Securities and Exchange Board of India ( sebi.gov.in) is the stock market regulator of India and in its consent order no 426/2011 of 14 January 2011 along with Anil Ambani and others including Lalit Jalan based on the application has directed them to pay 250 Million INR (roughly equivalent to 6 Million USD) as per the procedure of Consent Order akin to settlement of Securities Exchange Commission (SEC of United States of America, without the applicant admitting or denying any charges or guilt with respect to allegation of using the funds from External Commercial Borrowings in the Indian stock market.[25][26] The legality of such consent order was contested in courts and Government of India had issued an ordinance passed by the President of India named "Securities Law Amendment Ordinance 2013" on 18 July 2013,[27] retrospectively legalising such orders well after two years of the order 426/2011 and several such orders. As the stipulated period of six months has elapsed before the ordinance was approved and regularised in to an Act by the Parliament of India ( House of Representatives), again on the recommendation of the Government of India, the President of India has re-promulgated the same ordinance on 15 January 2014 which needs to be passed by the parliament within six months.[28]

References

  1. ↑ "Lalit Kumar Jalan". Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  2. ↑ "Reliance Infrastructure appoints MS Mehta as new CEO – Livemint". livemint. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  3. ↑ "Reliance Infra plans to have road portfolio of Rs 20k cr by 2012"
  4. ↑ "Reliance Infrastructure Directors Report, Reliance Infra Reports by Directors". moneycontrol. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  5. ↑ "RInfra re-designates Lalit Jalan as CEO". Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  6. ↑ "Lalit Jalan re-designated as Reliance Infra CEO". World News. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  7. ↑ Lalit Jalan to be Chairman of BRPL & BYPL. moneycontrol
  8. ↑ "BSES removes CEO, appoints separate heads for two companies". The Indian Express. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  9. ↑ "BSES Yamuna gets new CEO". The Economic Times. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  10. ↑
  11. ↑
  12. ↑
  13. ↑ "Welcome To ipf Indian Plastics Federation". Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  14. ↑ "R-Infra on threshold of commissioning most projects". The Times of India. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  15. ↑
  16. ↑ "Infrastructure will drive India’s Growth Story". EPC World. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  17. ↑
  18. ↑
  19. ↑ "HC refuses to stay govt’s decision of CAG audit of discoms". Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  20. ↑ "NTPC to cut supply if BSES fails to pay dues before May 31: Supreme Court". The Economic Times. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  21. ↑ "Delhi govt asks DERC to revoke license of BSES if power stopped". The Times of India. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  22. ↑ "Sreedharan unhappy with Airport Metro - The Indian Express". Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  23. ↑ "Reliance Infrastructure checks out of airport metro express". The Times of India. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  24. ↑ "India: not enough bureaucrats? – beyondbrics". Financial Times. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  25. ↑
  26. ↑
  27. ↑ "Consent orders get legal sanctity as govt amends Sebi Act restospectively". The Economic Times. Retrieved 18 September 2014.
  28. ↑

Sh. Lalit Jalan, CEO, Reliance Infrastructure – On Mumbai Power Tussle on YouTube

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