Meet RC Bhargava, IAS topper, Maruti Suzuki's 3rd worker who quit civil services due to Rs 2250 salary

India's most-selling and largest automaker, Maruti Suzuki, has become the first vehicle maker in the history of the country to have crossed Rs 1 lakh crore in revenue. It is also in the 28th position in global rankings. Volkswagen's revenue is worth 293 billion, the highest in the world. RC Bhargava, the former IAS officer who quit the coveted government job for Maruti Suzuki, is the man who made the impossible possible. He is the person who made a government experiment into a global success. Who is RC Bhargava, the chairman of Maruti Suzuki?

Osamu Suzuki, the owner of Japan's Suzuki company, in a 2015 interview, said the company wouldn't have been a success if not for Bhargava. He said meeting the man who was fair, pure and the person with the ability to make the right decision was the key for the company's success in India.

The year was 1982. The Indian government wanted a partner for a joint venture it was planning to make the fabled people's car. It was a sort of tribute to Sanjay Gandhi, the late son of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who wanted to make a small, affordable car for the masses. V Krishnamurthy and Bhagava were given the charge of the onerous task -- at that time, no foreign company had shown alacrity in partnering with the government with pre-dominant socialist traits. Both went to meet the Suzuki owner who wasted no time in nodding for the ambitious project, going against the good advice of his advisors.

Experts attribute Maruti's success to its ability to keep costs low. The credit for this goes to Bhargava who worked closely with the nascent auto component industry of India and helped it improve its quality while keeping costs down, reported Forbes.

Who was Bhargava? What was his background?

Bhargava had four brothers. He was the youngest among them. His father was a paper technologist at the Forest Research Institute of Dehradun. He pumped all his money into the education of his children. RC Bhargava went to the famous Doon School. In 1950, he studied science at Allahabad University and became a topper. His classmate Naresh Chandra, an IAS officer, told Forbes in 2015 that he was a champion sportsman with interest in squash, table tennis and cricket.

After his graduation, he cleared the toughest exam in India, UPSC. He became an IAS officer and even topped the batch in 1956. He was the UP cadre officer. He became a secretary in the ministry of water and power, between 1974 and 1977. He was also the founder-director of NTPC. Impressed with his work, Krishnamurthy offered him to join Maruti.  He was posted to the cabinet secretariat where he found the work boring. He told Forbes in the interview that this was because good ideas would be dropped even if one person opposed it, as the emphasis was on building consensus on everything.

He joined Maruti in 1981. He was only the third employee of the company. He joined on a one-year deputation which the government refused to extend. He had the option to either drop IAS or the company he founded. He resigned as an IAS officer. He was the IAS topper and a performing officer who had the chance to become the Cabinet Secretary. He still resigned. One of the reasons behind his decision was the painfully low salaries offered to IAS officers at that time.

He was 48 years old at that time. His salary was Rs 2250. Pensions were even lower. He and his wife were in financial dire straits. So he quit IAS in 1982. He became the full time director of the joint venture. After Krishnamurthy, Bhargava became the managing director of the company till 1985. He retired in 1997. However, he is still the chairman. He is 88 years of age now. He is closely involved in the process of product development, cost effectiveness etc. He lives in Noida and plays a lot of golf.

In a 2022 interview, he said experts had said that Maruti Suzuki was doomed to fail. However, the company became successful because it understood the aspirations of the people of India. 

He said Maruti started as an accident. He said it was not a planned move. He had claimed Gandhi wanted to do something that was close to the heart of her departed son Sanjay Gandhi. 

Nobody wanted to put 40 percent equity in cash. However, Suzuki agreed only after a few rounds of talks. 

His reported annual pay is Rs 1.5 crore. In 2017, he received Rs 99 lakh.