Naveen Jindal

Jindal was born in Hisar, Haryana, on 9 March 1970, youngest child of the late industrialist-philanthropist-politician Shri Om Prakash Jindal,[8][9] former Minister of Power in the Government of Haryana, India, and his wife Smt Savitri Jindal who too was a minister in Haryana Government till 2014. Jindal studied at Campus School, CCS HAU[10] and DPS Mathura Road[11] before graduating in Commerce from Hans Raj College, Delhi University in 1990.[12] He completed an MBA at the University of Texas at Dallas in 1992. He was the President of the Student Government and recipient of the Student Leader of the Year Award at the University of Texas at Dallas.[13]

Jindal's involvement in politics began in his student days. He was the President of the Student Government and recipient of the Student Leader of the Year Award at the University of Texas at Dallas.[14] After completing his post-graduation in the US, Jindal returned to India and began managing his father's political affairs.

In 2004 he stood for elections from the Kurukshetra constituency in the north Indian state of Haryana on an Indian National Congress ticket. He defeated his nearest rival Abhay Singh Chautala by a margin of 130,000 votes.[15] He was re-elected in the 2009 general elections. His focus as an MP has been the problems of corruption, over-population, women's empowerment, environment, health and education. Jindal moved a private member bill in Lok Sabha for a comprehensive Food and Nutrition Security Scheme that paved the way for the Food Security Act. He lost the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Kurukshetra.

Parliamentary responsibilities & initiatives

• Member, Standing Committee on Home Affairs
• Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Defense
• Special Invitee, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Civil Aviation
• Convener, Parliamentary Forum on Children
• Executive Member, Indian Parliamentary Group
• Additional Member, Parliamentary Forum on Population & Health
• Member, Kurukshetra Development Board
• Sports Secretary, Constitution Club of India
• Convener, Sub-Committee on Modernisation of Prison Administration, Ministry of Home Affairs

Jindal's struggle for the Tricolour began in early 1992 when he hoisted a tricolour at his factory in Raigarh. The then Commissioner of Bilaspur objected to it on the ground that as per the Flag Code of India, a private citizen was not permitted to fly the Indian flag except on certain days. Jindal filed a petition before the High Court arguing that no law could forbid Indian citizens from flying the national flag and, furthermore, the Flag Code of India was only a set of executive instructions from the Government of India and therefore not law. While he went out to court against the objections of the government officials, he did not remove the flag from the factory and kept flying it with respect and dignity.[16]

The High Court allowed the petition and held the Flag Code of India was not a valid restriction on the right to freedom of expression under Article 19 of the Indian Constitution. The High Court observed that, according to Article 19(2), the only valid limitations on this right were those that were contained in statute. In cases concerning the regulation of the flying of the national flag, such limitations could be found in the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act 1950 or the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act 1971.

The Union of India filed an appeal against this decision to the Supreme Court on the basis that whether citizens were free to fly the national flag was a policy decision, and could not be subject to court interference.

Supreme Court was pleased to grant leave and stay the operation of the impugned judgment. The flag continued to fly as Jindal's lawyer said "it would not be contempt of court since the judgement had only been stayed".

The matter then came up for hearing before the Supreme Court which observed that prima facie they see no reason why citizens cannot express patriotism by displaying the national flag. The court also observed that restrictions on flying of national flag only on certain days by private citizens seemed unsustainable.

The Supreme Court on 23 January 2004 dismissed the Civil Appeal No. 2920 of 1996 arising out of SLP No. 1888 of 1996 filed by Union of India against the judgment and order dates 22 September 1995 of Delhi High Court and held that flying the national flag was symbol of expression that came within the right to freedom of expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.[17]

Jindal has been strongly advocating to mark 23 January as the "National Flag Day".[18] While India observes Armed Forces Flag Day on 7 December, it does not have a National Flag day.

Jindal founded[19] the OP Jindal Global University (OPJGU or JGU) in 2009, in memory of his father, Mr. O.P. Jindal. Situated in Sonepat, Haryana, JGU has made significant progress towards achieving the goal through its nine schools; three research, capacity building and training institutes; and multiple research initiatives and centres. JGU is one of the few universities in Asia that maintains a 1:9 faculty-student ratio and appoints faculty members from India and different parts of the world with outstanding academic qualifications and experience. The Jindal Global Law School at JGU is India’s Number One Law School and among the top 100 in the world.

Jindal completed his MBA from the School of Management, the University of Texas at Dallas. In recognition of his exceptional entrepreneurship skills public service, and generous donations the School of Management of the University of Texas, Dallas christened it as the Naveen Jindal School of Management.[20] This recognition has also led to the establishment of the Naveen Jindal Institute for Indo-American Business Studies.

Jindal is also the Founder and Patron of the OP Jindal University, Chhattisgarh.[21] It started as an engineering college in 2008 and in a span of 4years, OPJU became India’s first and only private university to offer courses in steelmaking, metallurgy and management. The University was awarded the ‘Best Private University in Chhattisgarh’ at The Progress Global Awards 2020.

Jindal has been conferred with the Justice P.N. Bhagwati Award[22] in recognition of his outstanding contribution to legal education and corporate philanthropy. Instituted by the Capital Foundation, the award was presented by Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, former President of India, in December 2011.

In 2014, the Supreme Court of India in a surprise move cancelled the coal blocks allocated to Indian steel and Power companies that had been allocated through successive Governments at the Centre. Jindal's company too was affected as its coal blocks got cancelled and it has to pay the arbitrary retrospective levy. This led to a scenario where most of the private steel and power companies in India became Non Performing Assets[23]

Jindal's company JSPL saw a tough time with debt levels going to 50,000 crore rupees.[24]

The company went from the second highest wealth creator with share price at Rs 700 to a debt-ridden one with share price tumbling down to Rs 62. The company however scripted a turnaround and came back green. In 2022 March, its share price jumped to Rs 530.

Business India magazine wrote: "JSPL has placed a singular focus on sweating its assets, improving capacity utilisations and deleveraging. From a loss-making company to making a PAT of Rs7,500 crore is a big story."

[25]

Jindal is the Chairman of Jindal Steel and Power Limited (formerly known as Jindal Strips Limited) which was a moderately performing enterprise when Jindal first took over its Raigarh and Raipur operations in 1993.[26] Today, JSPL operates an iron manufacturing plant in Raigarh, Chhattisgarh, and plants in Jharkhand and Odisha.[27] The company has set up captive power plants using waste products from the sponge iron making process to generate power.[28]

Jindal is the Chairman of Jindal Power Limited (a subsidiary of JSPL) which runs the 1,000 MW O.P. Jindal Thermal Power Plant in Raigarh, Chhattisgarh.

Jindal topped the executive pay charts for listed companies in India with a package of ₹ 73.42 crore for the last fiscal 2011–12, which grew by over ₹ 60 crore from previous year.[29]

He has been ranked amongst Asia’s 25 Hottest People in Business by the Fortune Asia magazine for turning a struggling steel company into an Asian blue-chip giant. He has also been ranked as India’s Best CEO by Business Today based on a BT-INSEAD-HBR study of top value creators for the period 1995 to 2011. JSPL has been rated the Second Highest Value Creator in the world by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) of USA.

The company is likely to place a bid for the bankrupt Reliance naval. [30][31]

Polo

Naveen Jindal is an active Polo player. He is the Captain and Patron of Jindal Panther Polo Team. He started playing Polo 3 decades ago at the age of 18 and really got hooked on to it. He started his own team in 1995 that has won various tournaments including the Indian Open, Indian Masters, Maharaja Hari Singh Memorial Cup, Maharaja Jiwaji Rao Scindia Cup and the Bhopal Pataudi Cup. He was declared the Most Valuable Player at the finals of Maharaja Jiwaji Rao Scindia Gold Cup 2019.

“I was always very fond of horses. When we moved to Delhi, I joined the President’s Estate Polo Club just to ride. I saw people playing polo and was fascinated by it. I started playing and got hooked," he said in an interview with Mint.[32]

Shooting

Naveen Jindal is an accomplished skeet shooter. The Indian Shooting Team, under his captaincy, won a silver medal in the South Asian Federation Games, April 2004, in Pakistan. He has also represented the country in the Asian games held in Busan, South Korea in 2002. In 2003, he set a National record in skeet shooting which stays unmatched till today.

He was also a part of the Haryana shooting team that won the gold medal at the 54th National shooting Championship competition (Big Bore) in the civilian category held at Gurgaon in May 2011.[33]

Naveen Jindal is the youngest child of Smt Savitri Jindal and late Om Prakash Jindal. His father was born into a farming family in Haryana's Hisar district, and became the founder of the steel and power conglomerate, the O.P. Jindal Group. O.P. Jindal stood for elections to the Haryana Legislative Assembly and won thrice in 1991, 2000 and 2005 and contested elections to the Lok Sabha from Haryana's Kurukshetra constituency in 1996 and won. O.P Jindal was serving as the Power Minister in the Haryana government when he died on 31 March 2005, in a helicopter crash at the age of 74.

Naveen's mother Savitri Jindal was a Minister[34] in the Haryana Government and MLA from Hisar. She is the Chairperson Emeritus of Jindal Steel and Power Limited and JSW Steel.

Naveen is married to acclaimed Kuchipudi dancer and Chairperson of National Bal Bhawan[35] Shallu Jindal. The couple has two children, a son and a daughter.

Naveen has eight siblings: including Prithviraj Jindal, Sajjan Jindal and Ratan Jindal who are industrialists like him. Prithviraj Jindal is the Chairman (Non - Executive) of Jindal SAW Ltd.[36] Sajjan Jindal is the Chairman of JSW Group.[37] Ratan Jindal is the managing Director of Jindal Stainless Limited.[38]