pariWARS & New Job Opportunities

Return of the pariWARS

The latest WARS to strike Corporate India are the pariWARS. Just when the Ambani family feud shows signs of abatement there is a new split that is looming large. It is none other than the mighty Sahara India Pariwar. The latest buzz is that the patriach Subroto Roy has taken ill and is also elusive. Subroto Roy prefers to call himself the Managing Worker (what a funny name?) and Chairman of Sahara India Pariwar. The media is speculating that a split between the two sons of Subroto Roy is imminent. The group’s interests spans fields such as Media, Entertainment, Aviation, Parabanking, Premium Residential Developments etc. Outlook magazine (often viewed as pro-Congress) has run a cover story on the same. Subroto Roy is part of the Amar Singh camp and shares a special relationship with Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai and Anil Ambani. The Sahara group also sponsors the Indian Cricket Team. Nobody (including the media) knows much about what goes on inside this mysterious group. The impact of any crisis in the Sahara Group will be much bigger than the Reliance feud because of the huge deposits held by the Sahara Group. According to Outlook, 1 out of every 17 Indians has invested in the Sahara group and all their money will be at stake if some collapse happens.

Sahara’s Corporate website has lot of gyaan on Cultural & Sporting activities and also about Corporate Social Responsibility. Don’t know whether they count lavish weddings, extravagant parties and Mrs. World pageants as part of Cultural & Sporting activities. It will be an understatement if I say that Bollywood dances to Sahara’s tune. It is public knowledge that Bollywood shut shop for a few days so that all the stars can attend the wedding of Sushanto and Seemanto Roy (son’s of Subroto Roy).

Sahara Pariwar - Wonder what brings these folks together?

In the late 90’s one could see full page ads (like the one above) by Sahara group in all the major newspapers. The ads used to have photos of celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Kapil Dev, Aishwarya Rai, Saurav Ganguly, T N Seshan, Russi Mody and Raj Babbar. Not sure how so many people got into the trap? After seeing those ads I used to wonder about the business of the company. Shouldn’t a wise company be advertising its products / services rather than advertising its management team? Looks like conning people has never been so easy.

New Job Opportunities

India Inc. was also witness to recent family battles like the ones in the Bajaj family. However the Bajaj settlement was quite well managed internally and the media never got whiff of what was going on inside. Indian Express columnist S Gurumurthy is said to have brokered peace between the members of the Bajaj family.

ICICI’s K V Kamath and J M Morgan Stanley’s Nimesh Kampani are said to be the key people who have helped the Ambani brothers in arriving at a settlement.

Being a truce maker and settling family disputes / partitions is one of the hottest job opportunities which people can cash in on. Needless to say that you need to be a hot shot corporate leader / politician with an illustrious track record to be considered for this role.