50 Years And Counting
Rtn. Dilip Piramal, who becomes a member of the Arch Klumph Society today, shows no signs of slowing down
The Gateway team is waiting for Rtn. Dilip Piramal, Chairman of VIP Industries, at his labyrinthine offices in Prabhadevi. We’ve been told he is going to be there in five minutes. We know that is Indianspeak for 15 minutes so we settle down. As a result, when he strides in three minutes later, we are caught unawares; we are charmed and disarmed. He invites us in and we start right off by complimenting him on his sense of time. “Why should I lie about the time,” he says, “this is the problem – the truth has become flexible. But I do not like to lie.”
Today, Dilip will become a member of the coveted Arch Klumph Society. Named after the sixth president of Rotary, the Arch Klumph Society was established to acknowledge and recognise The Rotary Foundation’s highest tier of donors — those who have contributed $250,000 or more during their lifetime. Dilip says, “When Vijay (Jatia) and Sandip (Agarwalla) came to me to request a donation for some project that needed funds, I said yes right away. I knew I wanted to spend that money and it seemed like a worthy cause.”
Dilip’s method of philanthropy is very straightforward. He looks into the people and the cause that he is giving towards. “Right now, I don’t have the management bandwidth to get actively involved so I find good causes. One has to be careful that money is going for the right purpose. Trust and verify – with Rotary, one already has that. I am good at judging people and projects; that is my style in work also. It is rare that I have been cheated.” He does intend to get more active though, he says, “My uncle was against chequebook charity. Our Club advocates giving time, treasure and talent but I, at least, give one!”
“Right now, I don’t have the management bandwidth to get actively involved so I find good causes. One has to be careful that money is going for the right purpose. Trust and verify – with Rotary, one already has that.”
There are two causes close to Dilip’s heart – water and the girl child. He says, “What I don’t like is to spend a lot of money that will benefit only a small percentage of people. One of the organisations which I support is Ekal
Quick 6
~ Rtn. Dilip G. Piramal, Chairman of VIP Industries, is the pioneer of the luggage industry in India and an industrialist with 50 years of vast and rich experience.
~ VIP Industries Ltd is the world’s second largest and Asia’s largest luggage maker. The company has more than 8,000 retail outlets across India and a network of retailers in 50 countries. It acquired United Kingdombased luggage brand Carlton in 2004. It also launched Skybags in 2008.
~ VIPIL was the first company to make moulded luggage in India and it became a world leader. In 1996, Elanza, a fully integrated polypropylene suitcase was launched and soon became the leading product in the world in its category.
~ Dilip also the pioneered the moulded chair Industry in India. In 1985 he launched India’s first monobloc (a complete upright chair with a full back) which also heralded the beginning of one of the largest industries in the plastic moulding space.
~ Dilip takes active interest in social and philanthropic activities. He is involved with the Piramal Education Trust in his ancestral hometown Bagar, in the State of Rajasthan.
~ In 1987, Dilip sponsored the establishment of the Piramal Gallery at the prestigious National Centre for Performing Arts in Mumbai. He has also restored the Piramal Haveli in Bagar, which is now a heritage hotel in the traditional architectural form of Rajasthan.
Abhiyan, which is part of the Friends of Tribal Society. These are pre-primary schools in the tribal areas, run by just one teacher. They have touched the figure of 1 lakh such schools. My father and grandfather believed in education for the poor and I too follow their example.”
Dilip has inherited his father’s love of simplicity. “My companies have done quite well,” he says, “I have lived well
– my wealth has increased. But I never spend big money. Personally, I don’t require much. There is so much poverty in India – I want to leave a major chunk of my wealth to charity. My children already know this and they are in agreement with me. There is no need for more. What we have is far in excess of what we need.”
Last week, Dilip was awarded the Economic Times Polymers Lifetime Achievement Award. “Though VIP Industries is the second largest luggage company in the world, 90 per cent of our sales are in India. We now have an opportunity to become multi-national and that is the challenge we have now undertaken.” He is proud of his lineage and has always strived to uphold that. “We have always enjoyed a reputation as an honest and ethical business family. They called us the Reserve Bank. If we had someone’s money with us, they could be sure that they would get it when they wanted it and that we would never cheat them.” In business for 50 years now, Dilip began taking business decisions in the family early. As a boy, he excelled in both academics and extracurricular activities in school and college. He was always absorbed by general knowledge of the world around him and immersed in encyclopaedias.
Dilip has been President of the Rotary Club of Bombay Midtown, his old club. “I was the youngest member. I like Rotary. Earlier, it was very exclusive as a networking platform – now that exclusivity has gone down because of the number of ways one can network, particularly through the internet. The Rotary Club of Bombay does very good work. So I had a choice to either join RCB or my old club and I chose this. Many of my friends in the old club had retired.” When he is not working and signing cheques for his favourite causes, Dilip listens to old Hindi music. His knowledge of it is prompt. Two seconds into a melody and he can tell you which song it is and who was the singer. His other abiding passion is reading. He says, “I am reading a lot more now. I have become a TV addict – I take in a lot of news. I am a staunch patriot and very proud of our 5000-year-old heritage. I am very happy to see our country is developing a sense of self. I guess you could say my current interest is national affairs.” Thus, he speaks on these subjects with ease and expertise.
Dilip has an unassuming air and can switch from politics to philosophy with ease – the principles of both have been integrated into the world view and the personal mantra that he now espouses. “I am a very realistic person – I do not have regrets about decisions made in the past.”
Dilip has two girls (Aparna and Radhika) from his earlier marriage to Gita and Priyadarshini from his marriage to Shalini.