Jaiprakash Gaur

Jaiprakash Gaur (Hindi: जय प्रकाश गौर) (born c.1930) is an Indian entrepreneur. He founded and, until his retirement in 2010, was the chairman of Jaypee Group, a conglomerate with a heavy emphasis on engineering and construction (particularly for infrastructure and power projects), cement, and hydropower production. In 2012 he was ranked by Forbes magazine as the 70th-richest person in India, with an estimated net worth of US$855 million. Gaur has been associated with the construction industry for more than five decades.

Gaur was born in a village chirchita which is situated on the Delhi-badayun highway in District Bulandshahar Uttar Pradesh, where his father was an agricultural inspector. He graduated in civil engineering from the University of Roorkee as overseer in 1950.

After graduation, Gaur joined the state government's irrigation department as a junior engineer. Subsequently he started his own venture as a civil contractor. Two decades later, he laid the foundation for the Jaypee Group by setting up Jaiprakash Associates, a civil engineering and construction company. To leave a secure government job and pursue contractorship in 1958, when it was considered to be most prestigious, required courage. In 1967, he led and transformed a motley group of persons into a company which took pride in its cable address "Iron Will" and went on to execute:

In 2010 he was ranked by Forbes magazine as the 48th-richest person in India, with an estimated wealth of US$1.5 billion.

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