Day 93:) Who is the second richest person of India?

We all know the person who wins the gold in the race. However, we rarely know much about the person winning the silver. Here, the story gets more interesting as the India’s current second wealthiest person lives a secretive live. He never gives any interview or delivers any speech. You will find a limited information about him over google search.

He was born in 1954 into an Indian Marwari family. His father, Shivkishanji Damani, was a stockbroker. The Junior Damani joined University of Mumbai to complete his graduation. However, God had other planned for him. He dropped out of the course to start his own business. After the demise of his father, he joined the family business along with his brother. He used to live in a one room apartment. He is famously called as “Mr. White and White” as he has the habit of wearing white shirt and trouser regularly. It also helps him to make one decision less every morning.

Radhakishanji Damani started his investing journey at the age of 32. He made good amount of money during the Harshad Mehta scam. Several years later, He is believed to have told a few of his friends: “Agar Harshad saat din aur apni position hold kar leta, toh mujhe kathora leke road par utarna padta.” (Had Harshad held his position for seven more days, I’d have taken a begging bowl and walked on the road)* He considers the legendary value investor, Chandrakant Sampat as his mentor, whom he mad met in the early -90s.

After having tasted the pinnacle of success in investing, he started his entrepreneurial journey. He started DMart, India’s Walmart, the food and grocery retail chain in 2002. The stores offer around 40% discount on the items. He used to work 12-14 hours every day of the week. There are 196 DMart stores in 72 cities across 11 states as of December 31,2019. He is the only Indian tycoon, who is getting richer in during the lockdown.

*excerpt from Economic Times article