RAMESH CHANDRA AGARWAL, the Man Who Created the Dainik Bhaskar Group

The building of the No. 1 newspaper empire in Indiawas like an architect’s groundplan – Ramesh Chandra Agarwal laid the foundation edition by edition, city by city, state by state, going into the den of the mightiest andslaying them without fear.That quality of never coweringwas an inheritance from his father.Ramesh Chandra blended it with an unparalleled taste for risk-taking and a thirst for venturing into the unknown, throwing this Molotov cocktail at his rivals who stood mocking the new entrant before it hit them.In 35 short years, he turned a modest family-owned newspaper into the prime choice of readers in 12 states with 64 editions, and built an empire with a turnover of Rs 5,000 crore. But Ramesh Chandra Agarwal’s biggest professional achievement was to revolutionise the Hindi newspaper. Replacing the pure, undistilled Hindi of the discerning litterateur with popular, colloquial words that made an easy connect, he gave the Hindi newspaper a hitherto unknown respect – to heave its chest and play the game like a champion.This is a champion’s story.“Here was a man who was self-made, extremely successful, yet equally down to earth and humane. He was the kind of person one wanted to spend time with and to learn from.”– Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group“With a ready smile and a soothing personality, he was always wanting to learn something new.”– Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Stock market maven“There can be friendship with a newspaperman when you have the understanding that at the end of the day, the newspaper cannot be your mouthpiece.”– Kamal Nath, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh“...he gave Madhya Pradesh a new identity. He worked like the brand ambassador of MP.”– Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh“DB is the largest circulated daily in MP. Very powerful. It gave respectability to Hindi journalism.”– Digvijaya Singh, former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh“Year after year he was on the India Today Power List. I have seen people less eminent than him but 10 times more arrogant.”– Sunil Arora, Chief Election Commissioner