Hemant Kanoria


Hemant Kanoria is the chairman of Kolkata-based company Srei Infrastructure Finance Limited He is also the Chairman of India Power Corporation Ltd. and on the Board of Trustees for Kanoria Foundation, which has assets worth US$10 billion. Hemant is currently serving as a Board Member of the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Guwahati, the Neotia University and the New Delhi Institute of Management.

Early life and career

Kanoria began his career at the age of 17. His father entrusted him with an independent charge of two family owned flour mills, which were located in Kolkata and Krishnanagar, West Bengal. His task was to restart the former and revive the latter. The family decided to exit out of the flour milling business in 1988. Thereafter, Kanoria and his younger brother, Sunil Kanoria, ventured into the business of infrastructure finance Srei.

Employment

Hemant has been involved in driving rural entrepreneurship in India. He created a business model under the brand 'Sahaj' to make services like e-governance, e-commerce and e-learning accessible to people in remote geographies. The initiative has opened up revenue opportunities for over 61,000 village level entrepreneurs who are providing these services through IT-enabled Sahaj service centers across India.