Rajnikant Devidas Shroff

Rajnikant Devidas Shroff, known as Rajjubhai, is a chemist and industrialist, founder of United Phosphorus Limited and chairman and managing director of UPL. He was named for the Padma Bhushan in 2021 in the field of trade and industry, from Maharashtra ^[1].

A chemist in England

Shroff was born on 20 October 1933 into a family of Kutchi entrepreneurs ^[2]. He graduated in chemistry from Bombay University in 1956 and later took a management programme at Harvard ^[2]. He made a careful study of how to handle flammable, explosive and toxic chemicals safely ^[2]. He was the first Indian to start and run a chemical factory in England, where in 1957 he developed a new process for making mercury salts and was paid royalties for it by a British company ^[2].

Making in India

Back in India he set out to make hazardous chemicals that had been imported, using safe processes of his own ^[2]. In 1969 he pioneered red phosphorus production, and went on to make aluminium phosphide and zinc phosphide for agriculture ^[2]. His products were used by the defence forces, the matchstick industry and farmers, saving foreign exchange ^[2].

UPL

Under his leadership UPL grew to make hundreds of agrochemical products, with more than 30 factories in 16 countries and sales in over 130 ^[2]. It became the world’s largest generic agrochemical company, with more than 250 patents and over 10,000 employees ^[2]. He has been elected chairman of the Crop Care Federation of India several times, and founded the Centre for Agriculture and Science, CENTAGRO ^[2].