Sanjeev Bikhchand, founder and vice-chairman of Naukri.com, India's leading web-based job site, is among the Padma Shri awardees announced by the government on Saturday on the eve of Republic Day.
Bikhchand was born and brought up in Delhi, completed his education from St Columba's School and got his Bachelor's degree in Economics from St Stephens College. He completed his post-graduation from IIM Ahmedabad in 1989 and quit his job for entrepreneurship eighteen months later.
For the first seven years, Bikhchand started a lot of small businesses after graduating from the IIM -from salary surveys to databases, to feasibility studies, to training. He then set up Naukri.com in 1997, which is arguably one of India's largest web-based employment site.
Starting off from a servant quarter above a garage and seed capital of two thousand rupees, Naukri.com grew and attracted investments from leading global venture capitalists and became the first internet company to list on Indian stock exchanges. It today employs around 4000 people.
The company also runs Jeevansathi.com, 99acres.com, and Shiksha.com. In addition, it has made strategic investments in promising web start-ups such as Zomato, Policybazaar, Shopkirana and Ustraa.
He is also a founding trustee of Ashoka University. For his business skills, Sanjeev has also been awarded Ernst and Young - Entrepreneur of the Year award in the past.
In 2011 he was conferred the Distinguished Alumnus award by IIM Ahmedabad and in 2012 he was honoured with the CF Andrews Distinguished Alumnus award by St. Stephen's College. He is a member of the Board of the Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship at IIM Ahmedabad.
In April 2017, Outlook Magazine selected him as one of India's fifty greatest CEO's ever. He also supports 1947 Partition Archive - a not-for-profit orgsation that is building an oral history archive consisting of video interviews of people who faced partition.
Padma Awards - one of the highest civilian Awards of the country, are conferred in three categories - Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. The Awards are given in various disciplines and fields of activities.
( With inputs from ANI )