Two brothers, Khushi Ram and Bihari Lal used to run a small firm in the small city of Lyallpur (Present day Faisalabad, Pakistan). They used to buy cotton from the farmers of Punjab and sold it to cotton mills in Bombay. Gradually, their business grew and they set up their cotton mills and some textile mills.
They even began to buy wheat from farmers in Punjab and sold it to British agencies. Everything was going fine but things took a 180-degree turn when Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last viceroy of India under British rule announced the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947.
The families of Kushi Ram and Behari Lal fled to India on a Dakota 32 plane. It was a chartered plane that charged Rs 4,000 at that time. The plane landed at Safdarjung airport. Fortunately, the family owned a house in Naya Bazar of Delhi's Chandani Chowk.
They began their second innings from that house. The brothers began to work as trade agents of rice and oil in the city.
Gradually, the company started to grow and by 1985, it was selling only rice in its name. The first unit of KRBL was set up in Ghaziabad, UP. Eventually, it went on to become the first Indian rice company to receive foreign investment.
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Today, Anil K Mittal is the chairman and managing director of KRBL, India's top rice exporter. KRBL is the maker of the popular India Gate basmati rice. As per Hurun India, the valuation of the company stands at Rs 9,398 as of 2022.
