Anand Mahindra founded Nanhi Kali in 1996 out of the conviction that empowering women through education would have a tremendous positive impact on the nation in the long run. The Mahindra Group independently supports the education of 29,100 of the 75,000 underprivileged girl children who participate in Project Nanhi Kali. He is also a Life Trustee on the Board of the Naandi Foundation, a leader in providing academic support and daily meals to more than 1.3 million children in government schools as well as providing agriculture and natural resource management knowledge to small farmers across India.
Anand regularly uses Twitter to express his opinions and publicise company news. His Twitter profile @AnandMahindra has more than 800,000 followers and he usually tweets about twice a day. Anand uses the Twitter to raise the profile of the business, like “MahindraUSA gets platinium award for ‘Outstanding TV Commercial' Good to be reconised in the US for marketing savvy!
Mahindra's pet project - the Scorpio -- was developed from scratch for just $120 million, costing only one fifth of what it would take in Detroit. It was the single largest product investment the company has made. The decision gave M&M a leadership spot in the Indian urban SUV market, alongside Tata Motors and Toyota. The making of Scorpio is now a case study at the Harvard Business School. Interestingly, the Scorpio got its gas engine from Renault, its claddings from Michigan-based Visteon Corp. and its front axle from troubled Dana Corp. of Ohio.
His strategic acquisitions include the purchase of Punjab Tractors in 2007, which doubled the company's share of the tractor market and Kinetic Motor's two-wheeler business in 2008. In 2009, Tech Mahindra bought Satyam Computer Systems after its founder was accused of accounting fraud and rebranded the company as Mahindra-Satyam.
In May 2010, he led the purchase of a 55.2 per cent stake in Reva Electric Company due to his interest in producing electric vehicles. In November 2010, he bought a 70 per cent stake in South Korea's Ssangyong Motor Co with the aim of introducing Ssangyong vehicles in India and taking firm's marketing and distributing reach in Western Europe, Russia and Latin America.
It was Anand who spearheaded the group's entry into aviation. In 2007, M&M had bought Bangalore-based engineering services firm Plexion, which had several aeronautical experts in its ranks. This led to a 2008 tie-up between M&M and the National Aerospace Laboratories to build a four- to five-seater aircraft, the NM-5. It is expected to take its first flight before the end of 2011. The prototype is being developed at GippsAero's facilities in Australia.
Anand enjoys sailing, tennis, world cinema, and reading. He lives in Mumbai along with wife Anuradha Mahindra, who is known popular as the editor of 'Verve' and 'Man's World'. She is also the editor-in-chief of Rolling Stone India. Anand and Anuradha have two daughters.
