Bhupendra Kumar Modi

Bhupendra Kumar Modi aka Dr. M (or B. K. Modi) is a social entrepreneur, philanthropist, author and the chairman of Smart Group and Singapore-based India business conglomerate Spice Global.

Bhupendra Kumar Modi - Dr.M
Other namesB. K. Modi
Net worth$645 million (as of 2017)[1]

Personal life

Modi was born in 1949 to the visionary industrialist Gujarmal Modi and Dayawati Modi in Modinagar. He completed his primary schooling from the Scindia School, Gwalior, graduated with a degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-BHU) and received an MBA from the University of Southern California. He has been awarded a PhD. in financial management and Doctor of Letters in Industrial Management.[2] He is married to Veena Modi and the couple has three children.

Career

Modi started his career in Modi Steel, one of the prime units of his family business, Modi Group. In 1975, as head of Modi Rubber, he made the first Indo-International technical collaboration in the tyre industry with Continental (Germany). He laid the foundation for his business empire by setting up Graphics India which became the sole distributor of Rank Xerox copiers in India and formed Modi Xerox as a joint-venture with Xerox. In 1987, he formed a joint-venture with Olivetti (Italy), Modi Olivetti which became the first Indian joint venture to manufacture advanced PCs and floppy disks. He entered into a joint venture with Alcatel (France), Alcatel Modi Network Systems in 1992 which was the first Indian private sector company to manufacture telecom equipment and export digital switching systems. It was also the first in setting up a GSM network in India.

In 1993, His company Modi Telstra became the first company to launch cellular services in India which received the first Telecom Engineering Commission Certification of Quality. The first ever mobile call in India was placed on the Modi Telstra network by the then Chief Minister of Kolkata, Jyoti Basu to Sukh Ram, the then Union communications minister, in July 1995.[3] Later he formed Axiata Spice Communications, a joint-venture with Axiata Group Network which went on to become the leading telecom operator in Northern and Southern India.

In 1994, he entered into a joint-venture with International Paper, Plus Paper FoodPac, which pioneered the manufacture of eco-friendly paper containers for the foodservice industry.

In 2000, Modi established Cellebrum (now Spice Digital) as the first Indian mobile value-added services company for telecom operators and then in 2004, he founded Spice Hotspot (now Spice Retail) which was the first Indian mobile retail chain. In 2009, he formed Si2i, a listed company in the Singapore Exchange, by acquiring a major stake in the i2i and in 2013, he launched Smart GMMH a healthcare ecosystem which includes medical and independent living facilities, hospitals, medical offices and life sciences & research centre.

He founded ModiCiti in 2015, which is a private smart city situated near Moradabad. In 2016, his company Smart Group tied-up with the Hong Kong-based BYD auto industry company to build the electric vehicle manufacturing unit at Modiciti.[4]

Global Citizen Forum

In January 2013, he founded the Global Citizen Forum which works towards creating a sustainable and integrated world community in an ever-changing world. GCF periodically organizes events across the globe that are attended by a wide-ranging audience from business leaders and head of states to ordinary citizens.[5]

Filmography
as co-producer
as producer

Books
  • Hinduism The Universal Truth[7]
  • Performance — A Manager's Challenge[7]
  • One God[7]

Awards and honours

In 2013 he was presented with the "Ambassador of Peace" award conferred by the Universal Peace Foundation[8] and was appointed as the coordinator for the Indian subcontinent for the millennium world peace summit by the United Nations.[9]

  • 2014, the US House of Representatives issued a proclamation in appreciation of Modi's efforts to promote deeper understanding between the countries and congratulated him on his innovations and humanitarian efforts worldwide
  • 2015, Lifetime Achievement Luminary Award by Channel NewsAsia, Singapore.
  • Outstanding Telecom & Informatics Entrepreneurship Award.[2]
  • British-Japan Friendship Award: For his incessant efforts to promote world peace and harmony, he was conferred with the British-Japan Friendship Award for World Peace.[2]
  • Indo-American Chamber of Commerce Annual Award: The Indo-American Chamber of Commerce bestowed him with their Annual Award for exemplary community service.[2]
  • Special Speaker at Malaysia India Business Council Seminar: He was invited as the special speaker representing the Indian industry at the Malaysia India Business Council Seminar, Kuala Lumpur.
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References
  1. "Bhupendra Kumar Modi". Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  2. "India's Information and Technology Growth—A Personal Story". stanford.edu. Archived from the original on 11 June 2018. Retrieved 24 June 2018.
  3. "20 years of the mobile phone in India: One call that started it all". India Times.
  4. "BK Modi's Smart Group inks tech tie-up with BYD to make electric buses". autocarpro.in.
  5. "Founder's Profile". Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  6. "Doctor who decided to co-produce OMG..." The Times of India.
  7. "Making the Buddha laugh". The Times of India.
  8. Marsh, Robin. "Global Citizen Forum Founder Dr B K Modi conferred 'Ambassador for Peace' Award". www.uk.upf.org. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  9. "Dr. B. K. Modi Appointed Ambassadors for Peace". upf.org.


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