Navin Raheja is a self made entrepreneur who started his career with less than $ 100 and today he is executing projects worth over $ 2 billion. Born to Yagyabrahma Shrimati Krishna Raheja and late Shri Maheshwar Nath Raheja an Indian Government servant on transferrable jobs, his first investment was earned through his school and college savings, part time businesses and house tuitions. He started his career in 1978 with a scooter agency and experimented with diverse businesses viz finance, electronics, computers, travel agency, import agencies before finally settling with real estate after about a decade. Today, Raheja Developers is one of the largest real estate companies in India with projects over 60 million sq. ft. at various stages of execution. Having already delivered appx 29.5 million sq.ft. of mainly residential and commercial projects including farmhouses, plotted development and hotel properties and 15.50 million sq.ft under advanced stages of construction, his company is almost debt free with highest customer satisfaction index. Raheja Developers is unlisted closely held yet professionally managed company run by an experienced board of directors. Mr. Raheja is the first developer to undertake slum rehabilitation of 2800 families in the heart of New Delhi thus changing lives of almost twenty thousand poor people by giving them toilets and other modern day facilities. Raheja is the most awarded and adjudged best developer in India for the last three consecutive years. Mr. Raheja's stewardship and dedication of his team has led to Raheja Developers, India's top real estate company bagging over 75 prestigious national and international awards. Navin Raheja is currently Chairman of National Real Estate Development Council (Naredco). As president of Naredco, he has played a vital role in bringing up real estate regulatory act, affordable housing policy of Government of India and guidelines to states for real estate clearance procedures that would go a long way to provide cheaper and organized housing to every Indian. He is also the chairman of real estate committee of Assocham and is an eminent executive member of FICCI and CII. Being a respected entrepreneur he had the privilege of leading Indian Business delegations along with the President of India to several international missions. Mr. Raheja is a passionate wildlifer and had been a member of the Steering Committee of Project Tiger, under the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. His PIL in Supreme court of India since 1997 has succeeded in delivering several orders that were instrumental in turnaround of tiger conservation mission. For the first time in the world, he has successfully pioneered in rehabilitation of Leopard and Tiger Cubs in the wild. His wildlife films are weekly telecast on Indian national channel Doordarshan continuously for past two years. (Wilderness days, 11 am every Saturday and 12:30 pm on DD international every Sunday), as well as on National Geographic Channel ( Wild India Diaries, 8:30 pm IST). His true wild life encounters are covered every month in widely read magazines as a regular feature. He is the first developer in the country to provide free education, nutrition, clothing and medical care to hundreds of underprivileged children of laborers in an endeavor to make them better citizens. His company's CSR spent is over 4% of its net profits. Navin Raheja daughter Nayana and to-be daughter-in-law Kashish during the pre-wedding bash for soon-to-wed couple Nayan and Kashish, held at Ranthambore. (BCCL/Ranjit Kumar) |