Hyderabad: It has been nine months now since India has been under the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic and the country has witnessed over 94 lakh cases and around 1.4 lakh deaths during this time.
Of those who lost lives due to COVID, some were prominent names from the country’s business arena. Let’s take a look at some of these key personalities:
Mahashay Dharampal Gulati of MDH
Owner of India’s leading spices brand MDH, Mahashay Dharampal Gulati, died on Thursday at the age of 97 after suffering a cardiac arrest. According to media reports, he was undergoing post-COVID treatment for the past one month.
Gulati, also known as India’s spice king, was a popular face due to his presence in all MDH television commercials, advertisements and jingles. Last year, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian award.
Gulati had moved to India after the Partition of 1947. He arrived in Delhi and opened his first spices store in the Karol Bagh area and expanded his business from there. MDH as a company was established in 1959 and sells nearly 62 products today in over 150 different packages.
Gulati was also known to be a philanthropist and had built several hospitals and schools during his lifetime.
H. Vasanthakumar
H. Vasanthakumar, the prominent businessman from Chennai and former Congress MP, died of COVID-19 in August at the age of 70.
He founded Vasanth and Co, a consumer and home electronic appliances store, and made it a successful chain in Tamil Nadu.
In fact, he was also credited for popularizing the concept of Equated Monthly Instalment (EMI) and making it extremely popular among the middle class.
Vasanth TV, an entertainment satellite channel, was also established by Vasanthakumar.
Palem Srikanth Reddy of Palred Technologies
Palem Srikanth Reddy, chairman and managing director of Palred Technologies and a former Telugu Desam Party leader, passed away in August after a month-long battle against COVID-19 at the age of 56.
Reddy had earlier sold his successful venture Four Soft’s core IT and BPO business to a UK-based firm in 2013.
Four Soft specialised in developing and providing solutions exclusively to the logistics and supply chain sectors.
He was an Industrial Engineering Graduate from REC, Trichy and a Post Graduate in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University, USA.
Reddy had also contested as a Telugu Desam candidate against Congress leader YS Jaganmohan Reddy in his home turf Pulivendula in the Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh in 2009.
CK Rajkumar of Sujatha Bio Tech
CK Rajkumar, founder of Sujatha BioTech and the owner of brands like Nivaran 90 and Velvette shampoo, passed away in Chennai in October at the age of 68.
As reported by the News Minute and New Indian Express, he along with his colleague developed complications after consuming an experimental drug they prepared to cure the COVID-19.
Rajkumar was a qualified doctor and was also known as India’s ‘sachet pioneer’ for popularising the concept of sachets in the country.
He is the brother of CK Ranganathan, founder of CavinKare, a Chennai-based FMCG firm.
