Hero MotoCorp patriarch and doyen of the Indian two-wheeler industry, Brijmohan Lall Munjal, died on Sunday evening after a brief illness. He was 92.
Munjal died in a hospital in South Delhi, family sources said. He is survived by three sons and one daughter. The last rites will be performed on Monday.
Munjal had retired from active role and become chairman-emeritus of the over $4-billion group earlier this year and remained on the board of the company as non-executive member.
Hero Group, which officially came into existence in 1956, had started its activities in the early 1940s as a bicycle-maker run by the four brothers. Munjal was born in 1923 at Kamalia in present-day Pakistan.
After India’s Independence, the Munjal brothers started a small business of manufacturing bicycle components in Ludhiana and went on to build one of the largest business groups in the country.
Munjal led the Hero Group to a number of firsts. Hero MotoCorp is the world’s largest two-wheeler company now for the 14th year in a row. Another group firm, Hero Cycles, has been the largest manufacturer of bicycles since 1986. He led the Hero group to form a joint venture with Japan’s Honda in 1984, the joint venture — Hero Honda, went on to become the world’s single-largest motorcycle maker. The partnership ended in 2011.
He was conferred with the ‘Padma Bhushan’ in 2005.
