THE NEW FACE OF BUSINESS
Sajjan Jindal heads the JSW business group, the flagship of which is JSW Steel, a company where he is chairman and managing director. JSW Steel is India’s largest private sector steel manufacturer in terms of installed capacity. It operates or is building steel plants in locations as far apart as Maharashtra and Karnataka, West Bengal and Jharkhand. One of the lowest-cost steel producers in the world, JSW Steel has joined hands with Japan’s second-largest steel company, JFE Steel, to make high-grade automotive steel.
As part of its global expansion, Jindal’s company has bought mining assets in the United States, Chile and Mozambique. This has given it a presence across four different continents and established Sajjan Jindal as one of a new, ambitious breed of Indian businessmen willing to take aggressive bets on a large world-wide footprint. A former president of the Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), Jindal has now expanded the business conglomerate he runs to energy, ports and infrastructure and software.
Jindal has also been a leader in corporate philanthropy and in expanding the frontiers of public engagement by a business corporation. JSW Foundation, an independent trust, manages the social initiatives of the JSW Group and has integrated CSR design with the business plans of group companies. The Foundation, headed by Jindal’s wife Sangita, is active in areas ranging from education and health to gender equity and female empowerment to the preservation of environmental and cultural heritage.