Taj Mahal was used to bring GE to India

Buy the book here

New Delhi. After becoming Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi wanted to bring General Electric (GE) to India and his wish was fulfilled by KP Singh of DLF.

In Penguin Random House India's 'Why the Heck Not', Singh talks about his journey through a changing India and his indelible contribution to the industry. Singh has written this book together with Aparna Jain. Elaborating on the story of GE, the book states that during the mid-to-late 80s, Gandhi considered GE Chairman and CEO Jack Welch to be an ideal businessman.

Gandhi sent PK Kaul, India's ambassador to Washington, with a formal invitation to bring him to India. But, Jack refused. After this, one evening in 1988, Gandhi's secretary Sarla Grewal contacted Singh in this regard. At the same time Welch was married and Singh proposed that the couple should visit India to see the 'romantic Taj Mahal'. Welch agreed.

Singh graciously rolled out the red carpet for Welch and his wife, Jane Beasley. The book notes that Welch had breakfast with Gandhi's young team, which included chief technology advisor Sam Pitroda, Jairam Ramesh from the Planning Commission and Montek Singh Ahluwalia, special secretary to Rajiv Gandhi. Sam told them that India was probably one of the best countries for GE to start a business processing office (BPO). After this Sam introduced Jack to Manmohan Singh.

From Delhi, Welch and his wife went to Jaipur and then Agra. Singh writes, 'In Agra, the Taj Mahal, serene and shining against a pink sky at sunset, cast its spell on Jack and Jane. He was very happy with the journey.' What happened next is history. In the year 1997, GE Capital India set up its new office on eight floors of ‘DLF Corporate Park’, a modern commercial building in Gurgaon and converted one floor into a BPO to handle GE's back office operations. With this spectacular success began the massive BPO industry boom in India.