Mr. Patanjali Keswani
Award Year: 2011 | Degree Year: 1981
Mr. Patanjali (Patu) Keswani received his Bachelor of Technology degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi in 1981. He subsequently received his Postgraduate Diploma in Business Management from IIM Calcutta in 1983.
Mr. Keswani is presently the Chairman and Managing Director of Lemon Tree Hotels and Red Fox Hotels.
Mr. Keswani joined the Tata Administrative Service in 1983 and worked there for over 15 years. His last assignment with the Tata Group was as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Taj Group of Hotels. He subsequently worked with A.T. Kearney as Director in their Delhi office. Anticipating the enormous but as yet latent demand for mid-market and economy hotels, Mr. Keswani promoted Lemon Tree Hotels in late 2002 and Red Fox Hotels in mid 2006. The group currently owns and operates 19 hotels pan India with over 2000 employees. Mr. Keswani plans to take his companies public by which time the group will own and operate 26 hotels in 16 major Indian cities, with over 4000 direct employees and over Rs 700 crores in Revenues.
Mr. Keswani has also recently promoted two new companies, one in the affordable housing sector and the other in the vocational education space. He strongly believes that businesses should be both commercially viable and socially relevant/responsible.
Mr. Keswani is the pioneer of the mid market hotel segment in India and has created the ‘low cost carrier’ equivalent of the hotel industry. As a result, lacs of customers are now able to access affordable hotel rooms and restaurant services in his hotels across India. Directly and indirectly, the companies he has founded over the last decade will provide employment opportunities to over 10,000 people across India by next year.
Mr. Keswani is particularly interested in offering opportunities to physically disabled Indians and has ensured that at least 5% of group employees are from this disadvantaged segment of the population. He intends to take this to 10% of employees by next year. He was honored for this initiative with the N.C.P.E.D.P. (National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People) – Shell Helen Keller Award in 2010 by the Union Home Minister. Mr. Keswani was inducted into the FHRAI (The Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India) Hall of Fame in 2010 and was also awarded the SATTE 2010 Hotelier for ‘Best Mid-Market Developer’ of hotels in India.
In honouring Mr. Patanjali Keswani, IIT Delhi recognizes the outstanding contributions made by him as an Entrepreneur. Through his achievements, Mr. Patanjali Keswani has brought glory to the name of the Institute.
