Meet man, an IIT graduate, whose first business failed within a year, now runs Rs 34464 crore company as...

After graduating from IIT or IIM, most students get high-paying job opportunities. Some even choose to study further. However, some alumni decide to launch their business. Today, we will tell you about the story of billionaire Bhadresh Shah, who founded AIA Engineering, a niche metallurgical company in Ahmedabad. Shah is a metallurgy engineer from the IIT Kanpur. Despite coming from a family of doctors, Shah chose to study engineering rather than medicine. He now runs AIA whose market cap is Rs 34464 crore as of May 22.

The 72-year-old is one of the wealthiest businessmen in India. According to Forbes, he has a net worth of Rs 20820 crore. Two years after graduating in B.Tech metallurgical engineering, he set up his first venture, a foundry. He took bank loans and financial assistance from his father. However, his business failed due to poor product quality within a year.

Later in 1977, he changed his business plans and started supplying replacement components to power plants. Subsequently, he set up a company named Ahmedabad Induction Alloy (AIA) with one of his friends to manufacture steel alloys and iron castings for power plants. He renamed the company later as AIA Engineering.

In 2008, he decided to tap the mining sector for further expansion besides the power and cement industries. AIA is now reportedly the world's second-largest manufacturer of high chromium grinding parts (by sales) for the cement, mining and power industries.

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