From the bylanes of Jalandhar to a regular name in the annual ‘Sunday Times Rich List’, Lord Swraj Paul, who died on Thursday evening in London aged 94, was one of the most well known NRI entrepreneurs and philanthropists.
Photograph: Roger Harris/wikimedia commons
Born to Pyare Lal, who ran a small foundry used to make steel goods, including buckets and other farming equipment, Lord Paul was exposed to business early in his life much before he went on to establish UK-based Caparo Group, a diversified businesses entity with interests predominantly in design, manufacture, marketing and distribution of value-added steel and niche engineering products.
Born on February 18, 1931, he completed high school education at Jalandhar and Bachelors in Science from Punjab University in 1949.
Then he went to the US to pursue his bachelors & masters degrees in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
After completing his studies at MIT, he returned to India to join the family business, Apeejay Surrendra Group — one of India’s oldest business conglomerates.
But as fate would have it, he relocated to the UK in 1966 in pursuit of treatment for his daughter Ambika who was suffering from leukemia. Unfortunately, she died aged four.
Later, he set up the Ambika Paul Foundation as a charitable trust that went on to donate millions to promote the wellbeing of children and young people all over the world through education and health initiatives.
The Ambika Paul Children’s Zoo in London is one of the major beneficiaries of the foundation.
Lord Paul laid the foundation to set up Caparo in 1968 with headquarters in London and it went on to become one of the largest steel conversion and distribution businesses in the UK.
Today, Caparo, which has a turnover of over $1 billion, is managed by his three children — Ambar, Akash and Anjli Paul — and operates internationally from over 40 sites, serving customers globally, primarily from operations based in the UK, North America, India, and the Middle East.
While he was blessed with success in business, his life had a fair share of tragedies.
Besides the loss of daughter Ambika at a very young age, he lost his son Angad Paul, who was Caparo Group’s CEO in 2015 and his wife Aruna in 2022.
The personal losses drove him to undertake more philanthropic endeavours in their memory.
After the death of his wife the Ambika Paul Foundation was renamed as Aruna and Ambika Paul Foundation to honour her memory and to recognise her support and contributions to the many causes which the foundation supported during her lifetime.
He founded the Indo-British Association in 1975 to promote better understanding between India and Britain and served as its Chairman.
He was knighted by the British Queen in 1978 and became Lord Paul of Marylebone and a member of the House of Lords.
He was sworn as a Privy Councilor in October 2009.
House of Lords peer Lord Paul was conferred with the prestigious civilian award Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 1983.
In the Indian business landscape, late Lord Paul is also remembered for his hostile bids to take over Escorts Group and the DCM Group in the early 80s, which required the intervention of then government after legal battles.
He was a regular in the annual ‘Sunday Times Rich List’, this year he was ranked 81st with an estimated wealth of GBP 2 billion, largely derived from the steel and engineering multinational Caparo Group.
Despite his frailty in recent months, he had maintained his routine of attending the House of Lords.
An active member of the Indian diaspora in the UK, his death leaves a void hard to be filled.
