Rajnikant Devidas Shroff, also known as Rajju Shroff is the founder of BSE-listed crop protection company UPL. He belongs to a family of entrepreneurs and was born in Kutch. Rajju Shroff has been passionate about chemistry and chemicals right from the beginning.
In 1969, he pioneered Red Phosphorus manufacturing, and that helped in giving an impetus to the indigenous chemical industry.
Rajju Shroff’s life and education
Since the pre-Independence days, the Shroff family has been in the textile business. However, after the great recession in the thirties, his father Devidasbhai, and uncle Chanprajbhai began manufacturing pain balm and hair oil. He is married to Sandra Shroff and has two married sons Jaidev Shroff and Vikram Shroff. She is the vice-chairperson of the company. His elder son Jaidev is the Global CEO of UPL Limited and Vikram takes care of the company’s system and internal management and is the Executive Director of UPL Limited.
Rajju Shroff went to Khalsa College in Mumbaito complete his B Sc. He then joined the R & D department of his father’s factory. Rajju Shroff is a Chemistry graduate from Bombay University.
Rajju Shroff’s awards
In 2021, Rajju Shroff was honoured with Padma Bhushan. He is also considered India’s ‘Crop Protection King’. In September 2018, the billionaire got the Orden Mexicana del Águila Azteca (Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle), the highest Mexican order awarded by the Mexican government to foreigners for outstanding services to Mexico or humanity.
Rajju Shroff’s career
Currently, Rajju Shroff is chairman, managing director, and largest shareholder owning 26% of UPL Limited. After acquiring $4.2 billion of Arysta LifeSciences in 2018, UPL became one of the top agrochemical companies in the world. The products range from insecticides and fungicides to seeds. Rajju Shroff established a novel process of manufacturing mercury salts in a plant in the U.K. and was paid a royalty for it by the British Company.
Rajju Shroff’s net worth
Rajju Shroff has an estimated net worth of $ 1.6 billion, as per Forbes.