The doyen of Indian two-wheeler industry and founder of Hero MotoCorp Brijmohan Lall Munjal died on Sunday evening after a brief illness. He was 92.
Munjal died in a hospital in South Delhi. He is survived by three sons and one daughter. His last rites will be performed today (Monday), PTI reported quoted the family sources.
In wake of his ailing health, Munjal had retired from active role and became chairman-emeritus of the over $4-billion group earlier this year.
Here are a few things you should know about him:
– Munjal was born in 1923 at Kamalia (Punjab) in present-day Pakistan. Hero Group, which officially came into existence in 1956, had started its activities in the early 1940s as a bicycle-maker run by the four brothers.- He never went to college but was a people’s person.
– His close to 35% stake in Hero, which he shared with his children, earned him a spot among India ’s richest. In October, the patriarch featured at Number 27 on Forbes Asia ’s India Rich List with a family fortune of $3 billion. – After our freedom in 1947 from the Britishers, Munjal brothers started a small business of manufacturing bicycle components in Ludhiana and went on to build one of the largest business groups in the country.
– In the present times, Hero MotoCorp is the world’s largest two-wheeler company. Another group firm, Hero Cycles, has been the largest manufacturer of bicycles since 1986.
– Munjal led the Hero group to form a joint venture with Japan’s Honda in 1984, popularly known as Hero Honda. The partnership ended in 2011.
– In the year 2005, Munjal was conferred with the ‘Padma Bhushan’.