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Sahara Pariwar

Type	Private
Industry	Conglomerate
Founded	1978 (Gorakhpur, India)
Founder(s)	Subrata Roy Sahara
Headquarters	Lucknow, India
Area served	India
Key people	Subrata Roy Sahara (Chairman)
Products	Financial services Construction Mass media Retailing IT Services & Outsourcing
Revenue	73,000 Crore (2011)[1]
Website	www.sahara.in

Sahara India Pariwar is an Indian conglomerate company headquartered in Lucknow, India. Its diversified business has interest in finance, infrastructure & housing, media & entertainment, consumer merchandise retail venture, manufacturing and information technology. The company has a market capitalisation of US$25.94 billion as of March 2011.^[2] The group is a major promoter of sports in India. It owned the New IPL team Pune Warriors India. Sahara is the main sponsor of the Indian cricket Team. They own 42.5% stake in Formula One's Force India Formula 1 Team and also sponsors India national field hockey team.^[3] The Brand Trust Report listed Sahara in the top 100 most trusted brands of India. The report was published by Trust Research Advisory.^[4]

Subrata Roy Sahara [edit]

Subrata Roy Sahara

He is named among the 10 Most Powerful People of India by India Today. His residence is in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. Subrata Roy Sahara founded Sahara India Pariwar in 1978.

Sahara Real Estate [edit]

The flagship real estate project of Sahara Sahara City Homes chain of townships is proposed to be across 217 cities in India.^[5] In 2011 it launched Sahara Grace brand Phase II, a residential complex at Kochi.^[6] After Sahara Grace at Gurgaon and Lucknow the Kochi project is the third under this brand which is positioned to provide a product mix of apartments and penthouses to its residents^{[citation needed]}. Other ventures of Sahara real estate business are Sahara States – Kanpur, Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Hyderabad and Bhopal, Brand malls – Sahara Ganj, Lucknow and Sahara Mall, Gurgaon.^[7]

Aamby Valley City [edit]

Airstrip at Aamby Valley

Sahara has constructed Amby Valley City in Maharashtra near Lonavala off the Mumbai Pune Expressway. The city is spread over 10,600 acres of land.^[8]

Sahara Prime City Limited [edit]

The Sahara Prime City Limited operate in consultancy with foreign multinational Turner Construction Company. It entered the Indian construction and infrastructure sectors.^[9] Sahara Prime City Limited, the real estate flagship company of Sahara India Pariwar, alongside Turner Construction Company, America’s largest building construction contractor and the Acropolis Capital Group, a development and investment-related corporate et in India. The company, Sahara Turner Construction Limited was launched by Subrata Roy Sahara - Managing Worker & Chairman, Sahara India Pariwar, Mr. Nicholas E. Billotti - President and C.E.O., Turner Construction International and Mr. Annat Jain - Managing Partner, Acropolis Capital Group.^[10]

Sahara Asset Management Company Private Limited [edit]

Sahara Asset Management Company Pvt. Ltd. is a professional Mutual Fund House which manages 16 Mutual Fund Schemes in both Equity and Debt Segments. The Schemes have shown consistent and noteworthy performances. Sahara Banking & Financial Services Fund has been adjudged the Best Performing Banking Sector Fund over a 3-year Performance by the International Agency “Lippers.” The team follows a disciplined and professional approach in delivering high quality and consistent performances.^[11]

Sahara Sports [edit]

Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium

Pune Warriors India [edit]

Sahara Adventure Sports Limited acquired Pune Warriors India, a franchise cricket team that plays in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for Rs. 1702 crores ($370 million).^[12] The team was one of two new franchises added to the IPL for the 2011 season, alongside the Kochi Tuskers Kerala. The bid for the Pune franchise on 21 March 2010, is the highest bid by any company in the history of IPL.^[13] The Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium outside Pune is the home ground of the team.

Sahara Force India F1 Team [edit]

British driver Paul di Resta driving the Force India VJM05.

In October 2011, Sahara acquired 42.5% of the Force India Formula 1 Team for an estimated $US 100 million.^{[14] [15]}

Sahara Warriors Polo Team [edit]

In 2012,Sahara launched the Polo Team. It also played in the India Polo Masters 2012.The team consists of renowned players such as Samir Suhag, Adhiraj Singh, George Meyrick, Max Charlton and Siddhant Sharma.^[16]

Celebrity Cricket League [edit]

Celebrity Cricket League is a cricket league involving Bollywood, Sandalwood (Kannada), Tollywood (Telugu) and Kollywood (Tamil) film industry cricket teams. It was started in 2010 and takes place every year.

Sahara India Sports Awards [edit]

Sahara Sports Awards is an annual sports awards provided each year to the best Indian sport stars of various sports. It is organised by Sahara Group. It is popular in India and abroad. Sahara also sponsors the IPL Awards.

Uttar Pradesh Wizards [edit]

In July 2012, Sahara India Pariwar has picked up the Lucknow franchise of the upcoming Hockey India League (HIL). Sahara India is the owner of the Lucknow team Uttar Pradesh Wizards in HIL which will see six teams competing against each other.^[17] The following players were bought in the official 2013 Hockey India League Players Auction on 16 December 2012.^[18]

• V. R. Raghunath
• Tushar Khandker
• Sidharth Shankar
• M. Gunasekar
• Vivek Dhar
• Rocky Lohchab
• P.L. Thimmanna
• Teun de Nooijer
• Sander Baart
• Eddie Ockenden
• David Alegre
• Marcel Balkestein
• Wouter Jolie
• Jason Wilson

Bold = Marquee player.

Sports Sponsorships [edit]

Sahara has had sponsorship rights for the Indian Cricket Team since 2001. In 2005, Sahara had bagged the sponsorship for the Indian Cricket Team for 400 crore (US$73 million) for a four-year period ending December 2009, and had agreed to continue for six more months as Board of Cricket Control in India could not find any sponsors. In May 2010, the group re-secured the sponsorship rights for the Indian men's cricket team till December 31, 2013. Sahara outbid Indian telecommunications services company Bharti Airtel for the right to sponsor Team India for 3.3 crore (US$600,000) per match. Sahara and Airtel had submitted the eligibility documents and security deposits on Saturday and the bid was submitted on Monday and thereafter, BCCI's marketing committee decided the new sponsor of the India team.^[19]

• Teams and Events Sponsored by Sahara:
  • Indian cricket team
  • Indian wrestlers
  • India men's national field hockey team
  • India national women's cricket team
  • India women's national field hockey team
  • 2010 Commonwealth Games
  • Bangladesh cricket team

Media [edit]

Sahara India Pariwar

Electronic Media [edit]

The group owns the national Hindi News Channel Samay, consisting of 36 city specific regional news channels Sahara Samay.

Sahara One- A General entertainment channel.

Filmy- A Hindi movie channel.

Firangi- An entertainment channel.

Sahara Samay - National News Channel [edit]

The journey in electronic media started with the emergence of ‘Sahara Samay Network’ as a news network of reach and repute. The network offers five regional 24x7 news channels catering to millions and millions of Hindi speaking viewers in the states of U.P./Uttarakhand, M.P./Chattisgarh, Bihar/Jharkhand, Delhi/NCR and Mumbai. Additionally the network also offers 'Samay', a 24-hr national news channel broadcast in over 66 countries. Sahara Samay received the "Broadcast Engineering Excellence Award" in 2008 for its network newsroom technology.^[20]

Print Media [edit]

The group owns publishes and sells one magazine in English, 7 editions of Hindi Daily Newspaper Rashtriya Sahara, nine editions of Urdu Daily Newspaper Roznama Rashtriya Sahara and one International Urdu Weekly, Rashtriya Sahara^[21]

Film & Entertainment [edit]

Sahara India Pariwar

The group is engaged in business of producing, marketing and distribution of motion pictures in Hindi and other regional Indian languages. Its successes include Bewafaa, Page 3, Sarkar, No Entry, Wanted.^[22] In September 2010, the company was in talks to acquire MGM Studios, but the deal collapsed.^[23][24] Sahara is willing to try again to take over MGM.^[25]

Sahara is creating a Film City inclusive of infrastracture Sahara can utillise to sell to filmmakers software and other things to make movies, advertisements and tv programmes. The existing infrastructure of the Film City will be renovated and equipped with the most modern and latest technology^{[citation needed]}.

Hospitality [edit]

The Plaza Hotel

• Dream Downtown - New York

• Plaza Hotel - New York

On 31 July 2012, India's business group Sahara India Pariwar agreed to buy a controlling stake in New York's landmark Plaza Hotel for US$570 million, Elad Properties, an Israeli-owned real estate company, said on Monday.^[26]

Grosvenor House Hotel. 1920's postcard illustration

• Grosvenor House Hotel - London

The group also owns the Grosvenor House Hotel in London (UK).^[27]

• Sahara Star - Mumbai

The group owns the hotel "Sahara Star" in Mumbai, a 5-Star Hotel spread over 7.42 acres adjacent to the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. Currently it has 210 guest rooms, 13 suites and 9 restaurants. It contains World's largest pillarless clear-to-sky dome of its kind,^[28] World's first Hemisphere-shaped Glass Elevators,^[28][29] Marine Aquarium, Lagoon area, Inward and Outward facing rooms, Glass Roof rooms, Parking and shall have amenities like Sahara Health and Wellness Centre, Multi-cuisine restaurants and Preview theatre^{[citation needed]}.

Finance [edit]

Sahara India Life Insurance Company Ltd. SILICL), is a Life Insurance Company in the private sector. (cn) The company offers life insurance policies catering to individuals of all ages and segments.

• Life Insurance
• Mutual Fund

"Sahara Q Shop" [edit]

On 13 August 2012, Sahara India announced the opening of their retail FMCG business named 'Q shop' (Quality shop) with an initial investment of Rs. 3000 crore. Sahara also announced the hire of 600,000 sales personnel and 3000 customer care executives.^[30] At its launch, Subrata Roy said that Sahara had been planning for this venture for the last two years and was opening 'Q shops' in major cities across the country to provide adulteration-free consumer merchandise including processed food and beverages to buyers.^[31] The group said it would set up 305 warehouses in 285 cities in a phased manner.

Sahara India Pariwar’s Sahara Q Shop Entered into the Guinness World Records when it opened record 315 outlets in 10 states of India, just at one time on 1 April 2013^[32]

Power [edit]

Sahara Power has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Government of Orissa for setting up a 1320 MW (2 x 660) Coal Based Thermal Power Plant in Turla Tehsil of Balangir District, Orissa at an investment of about Rs.5604 Cr. Sahara India Power Corporation Limited has also proposed to set up a 2000 MW Coal based power plants in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh at an estimated investment of Rs. 8000 Cr. each.

Health care [edit]

The group owns a hospital in Lucknow. The hospital was opened in 2009. This hospital got operational in February 2009 and is currently operating with approximately 350 beds, including 120 bed Critical Care Infrastructure and expandable to 554 beds. It is spread on 31 acres and as a Multispecialty, Tertiary care destination, Sahara Hospital offers a high order of integrated quality healthcare with the availability of all super specialties and latest generation diagnostic facilities under one roof.^[33]

Other Business [edit]

IT [edit]

Sahara India Pariwar IT Division is named as "SAHARA NEXT". Sahara Next works on different domains like Banking, Finance,Media and Entertainment, Chemical and CRM. Sahara has clients all over the world including Malaysia, Singapore, USA^{[citation needed]}.

Tourism [edit]

The group has launched Sahara Global - an integrated travel and tourism agency that sells domestic and international services.^[34][35]

Handicrafts [edit]

The Araria Jute Project is engaged in creating diversified jute products e.g. Blankets, Carpets, Floor covering, Handicrafts, Jute Chappals

Education [edit]

• International School Amby - Amby Valley, Pune
• Sahara College Of Nursing & Paramedical Sciences, Lucknow

Sahara Airlines (Sold in 2006 to Jet Airways) [edit]

Former Air Sahara Logo

The airline was established on 20 September 1991 and began operations on 3 December 1993 with two Boeing 737-200 aircraft as Sahara Airlines. Initially services were primarily in the northern sectors of India, keeping Delhi as its base, and then were extended to cover all the country. The airline was rebranded as Air Sahara on 2 October 2000, although Sahara Airlines remains the carrier's registered name. On 22 March 2004 it became an international carrier with flights from Chennai to Colombo. The Airline was sold to Jet Airways for ₹1450 crore on 12 April 2007.

Corporate social responsibility [edit]

Sahara Welfare Foundation, the social development unit of Sahara India Pariwar, is engaged in social welfare projects which aims to initiate and facilitate such processes and initiatives where socially & economically marginalised and deprived people and communities irrespective of age, caste, class, gender or race are able to participate actively in the process of their development so that they may lead a life of dignity and respect.^{[36][37] [38]}

Adoption of families of Kargil Martyrs [edit]

Sahara India Pariwar has adopted the families of Kargil Martyrs and has committed itself to provide emotional and economic support to all such families(300 MARTYRS) by allocating 50 crore (USD 10.65 million ) approx. under seven schemes for this purpose. In addition to providing monthly assistance, help is also extended for specific activities such as marriages, purchasing academic books for the children who are studying and attempts are also made to develop emotional bonds with them.^{[39] [40] [41]}

Financial Assistance to the families of Mumbai Martyrs [edit]

We believe in taking care of those who take care of our nation's security. As another expression of this belief, we provide monthly financial assistance- 5 times their existing salaries for 10 yrs duration - to the 18 families of the Mumbai martyrs.^{[42] [43] [44]}

Financial Assistance to the victims of Dhantewadha Naxal Attack [edit]

Sahara also provided financial assistance to the 5 martyr families hailing from Gorakhpur with 2.5 lacs for each family as support.^{[45] [46] [47]}

NCC Scholarship [edit]

As a gesture of deep respect for NCC with which Mr. Subrata Roy Sahara was involved during his school and college days and commanded 1600 NCC cadets, a scheme has been constituted by Sahara India Pariwar to pay over 800 NCC cadets stipends and incentives amounting to over 1 crore annually.^[48][49]

Mega Rehabilitation Project: Sahara Gram [edit]

The village, Bhimasar-Chakasar, taluka Anjar district Kutch is about 15 km. from Gandhidham and is spread over 9457.31 acres. It is home to 3153 persons of which 19 died and 135 were injured due to the earthquake. Of the total families, houses of 801 were destroyed owing to the earthquake. The village was emotionally adopted by Sahara India Pariwar for relocation. Members of the Pariwar were there within 48 hours for providing relief services to the survivors and from then onwards the task of rehabilitating the earthquake affected persons by reconstructing 839 houses with basic community facilities is accomplished.

Rehabilitation of survivors of Latur: Sahara Wadi [edit]

Kilari - one of the villages affected by the earthquake that occurred in Latur district of Maharashtra was adopted by Sahara India Pariwar for relocation and rehabilitation. Earthquake resistant houses were constructed and handed over to the residents of the village by Nobel Laureate and Bharat Ratna Reverend Mother Teresa. Several basic amenities were also provided for in the village as per the needs of the villagers.

Pulse Polio Programme [edit]

^{[50] [51] [52]}

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Sahara India Pariwar
• sahara.in

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