C. Sivasankaran is the Chairman of Siva Group (Sterling group), Siva Industries & Holdings Limited [ultimate holding company] and Siva Ventures Ltd. He has a net worth of more than $4 billion. He heralded the PC revolution in India in the 80s, when he launched PCs at one third of the prevailing cost; pioneered the mobile revolution in the 90s; was the first to introduce DSL and Wi-Max broadband technologies in India. He is currently the group chairman of Siva Ventures Ltd that owns 33 companies across a diversified spectrum of industries all over the world including WinWind Oy

WinWinD

WinWinD is a wind turbine manufacturer headquartered in Espoo, Finland. It manufactures and supplies wind turbines with capacity of 1 and 3 MW....

, STel, JBUS (Shipping Conglomerate), Siva Realty and a number of other companies.

He is known to keep an extremely low public profile and has rarely given public interviews. Little is known about him except for his big bang approach to life. He is known to live out of the most expensive presidential suites around the world and owns a large fleet of private planes and yachts.

Early life

Sivasankaran was born in Chennai

Chennai

Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...

, India.
CS entered the management of his fathers Fabrication & Engineering business
He shot to fame when he bought Sterling Computers (now Siva Group) from Robert Amritraj, father of the Indian tennis star, Vijay Amritraj

Vijay Amritraj

Vijay Amritraj is a former Indian tennis player, sports commentator and actor.Amritraj was born in Chennai, India to Maggie Dhairyam and Robert Amritraj. He and his brothers, Anand Amritraj and Ashok Amritraj, were among the first Indians to play in top-flight international tour tennis...

, in the 80s.

Ventures

Sivasankaran, known as Siva in close circles made it to the Indian newspapers as an innovative emerging businessman. He created a phenomenon in Indian computer hardware market by selling personal computers at a modest price tag of 33,000 in 1980s when computers were sold for as much as 80,000.

He was recently in news in relation with the 2G scam.

"You may think that a private jet is a luxury, but it's a business tool for me."
Seychelles billionaire Mr Sivasankaran

Milestones

• 1985: entered as a vice chairman & Co-Promoter in Siva Fabrication & Engineering Industries[FIRM]{Incorporated & Managed by His Father Chinnakkannan}
• 1985: Acquired Sterling Computers [Now Siva Industries & Holdings Limited]
• 1995: Applied for Tamil Nadu telecom licence
• 1996: Purchased Rapper M.C. Hammer's house in Fremont, California, establishing a U.S. base of operations. Previously, Siva had been living and operating his business empire from various hotels in Singapore, most prominently the Presidential Suites in Singapore's Ritz Carlton and Pan Pacific Hotels which he resided in under long-term leases.
• 1997: Helps recapitalize a troubled Sikh owned bank in Thailand together with Hong Kong based overseas Indian tycoon Hari Harilela
• 1997 Help finance the development of the Chiva Som Resort in Hua Hin, Thailand. Chiva Som was one of Asia's first Spa destinations.
• 1997-98: Launched Aircel, a telecom company based out of Chennai (then)
• March 1998: Incorporated Dishnet DSL, the country’s first DSL internet provider
• December 2003: Bought 79% equity stake in RPG Cellular in Chennai for Rs 210 cr
• February 2004: Agreed to sell 33% stake in TN Mercantile Bank to the Nadars for Rs 130 cr
• March 2004: Sold the internet service division of DishnetDSL Limited to VSNL for Rs 270 cr
• April 2004: Bought 65.4% equity stake Barista coffee chain from Turner Morrison for Rs 30 cr and the Tata group
• August 2004: Dishnet Wireless bought Unified Access Service Licences for seven eastern circles at Rs 300 crore.
• 2005: Entered health food business with Aiwo - a health food chain were low-calorie food cooked in olive oil
• 2005: Bought out RPG Cellular Limited for Rs 208 cr and renamed it Aircel Cellular
  • December: Sold 100% stake to Maxis and Reddy’s combine for $1.08b giving Maxis access to 628 million subscribers in India
• 2006
  • January 5: DTH television JV with Zee Telefilms Ltd (ZTL) .
  • May 2: Sterling Infotech (Siva's company) gives indication that it would buy 51% in S Tel, a Chennai based telecom company. A month later in June, Sterling Infotech buys the stake.
  • May 14: Siva buys 66% in Hindustan Mill land in central Mumbai for Rs 310 crore from DLF.
• 2007: Acquired Controlling stake in WinWind manufacturers of 1 MW and 3 MW wind turbines.
  • July 19: ET reports that Siva Ventures has bought 49% stake in Aamby Valley a posh high priced township near Mumbai. Details of documents that ET published indicated that Siva Ventures had bought the stake in 2007.
• 2008: Made a foray into the shipping and logistic company by acquiring Norwegian shipping firm J.B. Ugland Shipping.
• 2010: Acquires 50% stake in Norwegian mineral water company
• 2010: Bought over 10% stake in Ruchi Soya Limited through open market purchases
• 2010: Bought over 10% stake in KS Oils through open market purchases
• 2010: Acquired major stake in African palm oil company Equatorial Palm Oil
• 2010: Acquired minority stake in African palm oil producer Feronia Inc.

External links

• IndiaTimes.com