Meet Satyanarayan Nuwal, from sleeping on Railway platforms to establishing Rs 35,800 crore defence equipments

Satyanarayan Nuwal was raised in Bhilwara, a village in Rajasthan where his father was an accountant for the government. He was more focused on gaining business knowledge more than on traditional education from childhood. He, therefore, spent a year with his guru after finishing his 10th grade and tried his hand at business. 

He tried his hand at a small chemicals and trading firm at the impressionable and immature age of 18, but it didn’t turn out to be very successful. Satyanarayan Nuwal married at the age of 19 and remained in Chandrapur, Maharashtra, where he struggled until 1977.

For Satyanarayan Nuwal, the time at Chandrapur was challenging. Because he couldn't afford basic essentials, he frequently slept at railway stations. However, he never lost hope, and it was this unwavering spirit that led him to meet Abdul Sattar Allah Bhai, who had a magazine and an explosives licence but was not particularly interested in operating a business using those resources. 

But Satyanarayan Nuwal recognised a commercial opportunity in this. He was aware that there were never enough explosives. As a result, Nuwal started renting explosive magazines in 1970 and started to make money from customers looking for ammunition to use in coal mines. Satyanaryan Nuwal eventually grew his company and became a consignment agent before rising to the position of greatest explosives dealer in India. 

Satyanaryan Nuwal finally gave this notion wings in 1995, conceiving of and founding Solar Industries as a result. Its headquarters were in Nagpur. Initially, Solar Industries supplied explosives to publicly owned coal mines. The company has operations in 65 different countries and has its headquarters in Nagpur.

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Afterwards, it made its own explosives and started working in the defence industry.  By 2006, the business was approaching a turnover of Rs 78 crore with a net profit of about Rs 11 crore, and it had plans to go public. This money was mostly used by Satyanaryan Nuwal to build 13 additional manufacturing facilities and expand the company across 29 locations. 

Around this period, the company also began to expand outside of India, entering the manufacturing sectors of six nations: Tanzania, South Africa, Zambia, Ghana, and Nigeria.

As of right now, Solar Industries is working to establish production facilities in Thailand, Australia, and Indonesia. 

The government eventually granted Solar Inudtsrires a licence in 2010 to manufacture explosives for the Indian army, making it one of the first private enterprises to do so.

The company currently produces everything from explosives and propellants to grenades, drones, and warheads as part of the Make In India mission. Market value for Solar Industries increased by 1,700% in a decade, from 1,765 crores in 2012 to more than 35,000 crores as of November 2022. Satyanarayan Nuwal's net worth is $190 crores in 2023. 

With a 73% ownership position in Solar Industries, Nuwal has amassed a fortune of $3 billion. According to the Forbes India Rich List, he is now the 72nd richest Indian.