Laljibhai Patel

Laljibhai Tulsibhai Patel
Born	(1955-11-28) 28 November 1955 (age 68) Ugamedi, Botad, Gujarat, India [1]
Occupations	Social Activist Business Person Founder & Chairman of Dharmanandan Diamonds Pvt. Ltd.(DDPL) Founder & President of Samast Patidar Samaj Trust - Surat President of Traffic Education Trust - First Safe City CCTV Project - Surat President of Dharmanandan Charitable Trust – Surat President of Shantuben T. Patel Charitable Trust President of RV Gosaliya Vidhya Mandir – Ugamedi President of Katargam Police Welfare Trust – Surat Vice-President of Kiran Hospital - Surat [2] Chairman of Construction Planning Committee - Surat Diamond Bourse (SDB) [3] Treasurer at Gujarat Hira Bourse [4] Founder Trustee at Sardar Dham – Ahmedabad Trustee at Saurashtra Jaldhara Trust Chairman at Shree Swaminarayan Kanya Gurukul, Surat Trustee at Shree Swaminaran Gurukul, Rajkot – 32 School Branches in Gujarat [5] Trustee at Shree Swaminaran Gurukul, Hyderabad – 18 School Branches [5] Trustee at Samast Patidar Arogya Trust - Surat [2] Trustee at Prayosha Pratisthan School - Ahva, Saputara Trustee at Sardar Dham Education Trust – Bhavnagar Trustee at Bhavnagar District Leuva Patel Education Trust – Surat Trustee at Saurashtra Patel Seva Samaj - Puna Gam, Surat Trustee at Patel Social Trust – Mumbai Trustee at Saurashtra Patel Kelavni Mandal - Ahmedabad Trustee at Shastri Shri Dharmajivandasji Swami Rajkot Gurukul Hospital Trustee at Shree Swaminarayan Multi-specialty Hospital - Vadtal Trustee at Lions Cancer Detection Centre - Civil Hospital - Surat
Years active	1985–present
Spouse	Nirmalaben ​ (m. 1977)​
Children	2
Website	Laljibhai Patel

Laljibhai Patel (born 28 November 1955) is an Indian diamantaire, a philanthropic social activist, and the chairman of Dharmanandan Diamonds Pvt. Ltd. (DDPL) ^[6] He has been the head Dharmanandan Diamonds Group of Companies (Revenue - US$1.5 Billion) for over four and a half decades.

Laljibhai Patel ranked in the top 10 wealthiest jewelers in India with a personal fortune of $480 million, a Wealth-X list of India's wealthiest jewelers released on July 1, 2015. ^{[7] [8]}

In 2015, he was honored with a lifetime achievement award by Retail Jewelers India for his contribution and success in the industry of luxury goods and his contribution to the betterment of society in Surat and throughout the State of Gujarat. ^[9]

Career

After moving to Surat City from his hometown, Ugamedi, in 1974-75 Laljibhai Patel began his career as a diamond trader. In 1985, along with his childhood friend Tulsibhai Goti, Laljibhai founded a small diamond manufacturing unit named Shreeji Gems. The company grew, and in 1993, it was registered as a partnership firm and renamed Dharmanandan Diamonds. After 14 years, on August 31, 2007, it was formally incorporated as Dharmanandan Diamonds Pvt. Ltd., which manufactures polished diamonds in all shapes and sizes. In November 2007, the company became a De Beers Sightholder. ^[10]

Personal life

Laljibhai was born at Ugamedi, a village in Botad district in the state of Gujarat, India, to a farmer family. He moved to Rajkot to complete his secondary school. He studied at Gurukul, Rajkot where he befriended his current business associate, Tulsibhai Goti. Laljibhai is married to Nirmalaben and the couple has two sons. ^{[1] [ citation needed ] [11]}

Social work

Laljibhai has been involved in several philanthropic causes. These include female foeticide, water conservation, education, health, and social illiteracy.

Save the Girl Child Mega Campaign

Under the presidency of Laljibhai, Samast Patidar Samaj ^[12] organized the "Save the [female child] Mega Campaign" (Maha Laddu Beti Bachao Abhiya). To encourage people to participate with empathy in this movement, handful of grains and a glass of water were collected from 235,000 households to create a gigantic Bundi laddu of 300,000 kg (660,000 lb) with a diameter of 65 ft (20 m) and 35 ft (11 m) of height. Moreover, with an appeal to stop female foeticide and cultivate the attitude of equality towards girl child, 170,000 six-page informative booklets were distributed throughout the state. On 1 January 2006, Surat glimpsed a massive gathering of 1.2 million people from throughout Gujarat who all took oath in the witness of Ladu Prasadam that we will never do female foeticide and prevent others from doing the same. Limca Book of Records has proudly acknowledged this program. ^[13]

This vast movement helped improve the gender ratio in Gujarat at 920 girls to 1000 boys in contrast to 761 girls in the year 2006 and has created psychological change, people start believing that girls are in no way less than boys. The discrimination is reduced to the level that people started celebrating the birth of a girl child as they do for the birth of a boy child.

River Linking & Rainwater Conservation

Growing up as a farmer's son, Laljibhai has always been concerned about rainwater conservation. He knew how uncertain rain affects annual crop yield. To resolve this, water conservation at a very large capacity was necessary. To start in that direction, in his native village Ugamedi in Botad district of Gujarat, he dug three ponds of 3.5 km (2.2 mi) in length, up to 45 ft (14 m) deep and 400 ft (120 m) wide that can store nearly 5 crore liter of fresh water, making them largest artificial ponds in Gujarat. The village river Sonal was supposed to fill these ponds, however, during the following weak monsoon, it was seen that these huge ponds could not be filled with river Sonal alone. After pondering over the condition he analyzed that there is another large river Keri 2.5 km (1.6 mi) away from the village and of which the water flows in the ocean. He diverted water from river Keri that was flowing away to river Sonal by RCC pipeline of three feet (0.91 m) diameter to fill three huge ponds. ^[14]

In this way, first time in India, he paid tribute to Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee for his vision of interlinking rivers. This project aims to provide resolution to the perennial problem of water scarcity in the region. The whole cost of the project is borne by Laljibhai on his own. ^[15]

Clean Ganga Mission

Laljibhai Patel acquired the Narendra Modi Suit for US$693,174 through an auction that was held for a noble cause of raising funds for the cleaning & preservation of the holy river Ganga, a symbol of great Indian heritage. ^[16] The suit is the world's most expensive clothing and holds the record with Guinness Book of World Records. ^[17]

Contribution to Kiran Hospital

Being the Vice President of Kiran Hospital, Laljibhai Patel is contributing to the hospital's day-to-day necessity in terms of management. ^[2] Laljibhai has donated a handsome amount for the construction of the hospital, and as a part of it, a floor is named after Laljibhai's business, Dharmanandan Diamonds. He is also sharing hospital bonds to underprivileged people free of cost to avail treatment at Kiran Hospital.

Schools in Tribal Area

For the overall upliftment of the tribal area, Laljibhai Patel has built 10 schools in the Dang and Narmada district area, each of which has more than 500 tribal children studying.

Promoting Gurukul Education

Laljibhai himself studied in Gurukul and knows its importance. For that, he is actively involved as a Trustee in Shree Swaminarayan Rajkot Gurukul with 53 branches in India and Worldwide, where the best character of 50000 children built up through real education & spiritual enlightenment. Since its inception till 2021, more than 500,000 students are passed from these Gurukul branches together.

Kanya Gurukul (Girl's Gurukul)

Laljibhai realized that the nation needs a similar institute like Shree Swaminarayan Gurukul for Girls, a place where young girls could receive the same values-based education. With his unwavering determination, he brought his idea to life and established the cornerstone of first ever girls' Gurukul of Gujarat in Surat. This girls' gurukul is spread over 60,000 square yard of land which will accommodate 3,000 daughters providing them with a nurturing environment to grow with Spiritual enlightenment and discipline at the core.

Helping Hand for Specially Abled

Understanding the necessity of the physical ability of humans, Laljibhai, under the Presidency of Shantuben T. Patel Charitable Trust is running a campaign to donate the most important amenities - artificial hands and legs to handicapped people. So far, numerous pieces of artificial hands and legs are donated to needy ones.

Monetary Donation to Hospitals

Laljibhai Patel has offered monetary support to many hospitals including RMS Multi-speciality Hospital in Dhandhuka, Swami Shree Nirdoshanand Manavseva Hospital in Timbi, Lions Cancer Detection Centre in Surat Civil Hospital, Kiran Hospital in Surat, Shree Swaminarayan Multi-specialty Hospital in Vadtal, and many other health organizations.

References

1. "Diamond Czar - Laljibhai Patel, Chairman, Dharmanandan Diamonds Pvt. Ltd". Diamond World News Service. 17 April 2013.
2. "Message from Founders - Kiran Hospital".
3. "Surat Diamond Bourse". www.suratdiamondbourse.in.
4. "GHB Gem & Jewellery Park | Home". www.gujarathirabourse.org.
5. "Shree Swaminarayan Gurukul Rajkot Sansthan".
6. "Company profile". www.hoovers.com. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
7. "Laljibhai Patel tops the list of wealthiest Indian jewellers". News18.com. 1 July 2015.
8. "India's 10 wealthiest jewellers". Rediff. 1 July 2015.
9. "Nazraana Retail Jeweller India Awards 2015". India Infoline News Service. 1 August 2015.
10. "De Beers Sightholders".
11. "पढ़िए मोदी का सूट खरीदने वाले लालजी भाई का कच्चा चिट्ठा". अमर उजाला. 21 February 2015. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
12. "Samast Patidar Samaj (SPS) is a charitable organization established to support environmental, social, and economic improvement like Save Gilrl Child, Education, Health Care etc in Surat and in the State of Gujarat". Archived from the original on 17 September 2016. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
13. "Beti Bachao Abhiyan".
14. "Bhavnagar village sets example in river interlinking". The Times of India. 17 June 2014.
15. "River interlinking makes Ugamedi village drought-proof". The Times of India. 3 September 2014.
16. "PM Narendra Modi's Rs 4.31 crore suit enters Guinness Book Records". 22 August 2016.
17. "Most expensive suit (clothing) sold at auction - Guinness World Records Limited".

External links

• Official website