Loading AI tools
Prominent Indian family From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Khanna family is a prominent Punjabi Hindu family originating from India. Members of the Khanna family have been involved in various fields, including business, finance, politics, philanthropy, sports, and sports administration.[1][2][3][4] Khanna family members initially gained prominence and notability from the 1950s onwards.[5][6][3] The Khanna family's interests in business and finance have been diverse.[1][7][8][9] Since the 1980s, members of the family have been noted for their business interests in the arms and aerospace industries.[1][10][11][12] From the 1960s to the 2020s, the Khanna family's business and financial activities have faced government, investigative, and media scrutiny, leading to multiple controversies.[13][14][15][16] Through many of its members, the Khanna family is related to other notable individuals and families.[1][17][18]
Khanna family | |
---|---|
Current region | primarily India |
Place of origin | Punjab Province, British India |
Founded |
|
Founder | Shanti Lal Khanna |
Connected families | List
|
The Khanna family's history traces back to the city of Lahore in the Punjab Province of British India.[19] The family has Punjabi Hindu origins and traces its roots to the Punjabi Khanna clan.[19][18] According to accounts and claims by family members, the Khannas were a wealthy family as a result of the manufacturing business founded by Shanti Lal Khanna, who was also known as S.L. Khanna, in 1939 during the British Raj.[19][20] Based on family claims and accounts, Shanti Lal Khanna's manufacturing company was authorized by the Punjab Province government to be the sole manufacturer of weights and measures in the province.[20] During the Partition of India in 1947, the Khanna family fled the city and resettled in Delhi, India. The family initially lost their wealth in the Partition and had to rebuild in Delhi.[19]
The Khanna family's emergence began in independent India after they settled in Delhi following the Partition in 1947. Family members first gained prominence in the 1950s when Shanti Lal Khanna restarted his business and founded Delhi Small Scale Industries, a manufacturing company primarily producing textiles and engaging in import-export in Delhi.[21][5][15] Shanti Lal Khanna was a Freemason.[22] He also held positions on the Bureau of Indian Standards' product specification committees.[23][24]
Since the 1960s, brothers Vipin Khanna and Vinod K. Khanna, sons of Shanti Lal Khanna, played significant roles in expanding the Khanna family's presence in business, finance, and politics.[1][6][16][25] Vipin Khanna was a former Indian Army officer in the Brigade of the Guards regiment, who voluntarily retired at the rank of Major in 1965.[15][26][27] Vinod K. Khanna was also a Freemason.[28] Their descendants have also continued to contribute to the family's involvement in these fields.[3][12][29] Members of the Khanna family are primarily based in Delhi, though some members, both current and past, have resided in various locations across India and abroad.[30][31] Some family members are not Indian citizens.[32][33]
The Khanna family initially rose to prominence in the 1950s, due to the success of its members in business and finance, fields in which many family members continue to be involved and expand their interests. Although various members of the family have jointly owned businesses with certain relatives at different times since the 1960s, they generally maintain separate business and financial interests.[34][35][36][37] Members of the family have maintained business and financial interests in both India and internationally.[38][39][40][41] Some of their activities have been the subject of significant public and media attention.[42][43][44][45][46]
Since the 1960s, various members of the Khanna family, through multiple companies and corporate entities, have held interests in a wide range of industries, including agriculture, alcohol, business process outsourcing, commodities trading, consultancy, electronics, fast-moving consumer goods, general trading, hospitality, infrastructure, logistics, manufacturing, mining, power, railways, real estate, shipbroking, software, steel, telecommunications equipment, and utilities.[3][8][20][31][9] Beginning in the 1980s, some members of the Khanna family, starting with Vipin Khanna and followed by his middle son Arvind Khanna, have been particularly noted for their business interests in the arms and aerospace industries.[43][47][48] According to the Indian government and Indian investigative agencies, initially Vipin Khanna, and later Arvind Khanna, allegedly exerted significant control over the approval of foreign defence procurement contracts in India.[1][43][47] Indian government authorities have also claimed that the Khanna family has had a control over arms deals in the Indian defence industry since the 1980s.[1][47][43][49] Arvind Khanna also founded TSL Defence Technologies, an electronic warfare company and one of India's first private sector defence firms, in 2001.[50][51] His company was among the first nine to receive a defence manufacturing licence.[51][52]
From the 2000s, members of the Khanna family, beginning with Vipin Khanna and his youngest child Aditya Khanna, entered the financial services industry by co-founding an investment bank that included an asset management division.[7] Aditya Khanna later founded his own investment bank and investment company, and maintained ownership interests in private equity asset management companies.[53][54][55] Other members of the family have also been involved in investing, fundraising, and providing investment advisory services.[56]
Since the 2020s, some members of the Khanna family have continued to expand their business and financial interests in industries where they have had a historical presence, as well as expanding to adjacent and related industries. Aditya Khanna's business interests include mining and refining through the company Ethiopotash, and real estate fund management through the firm Etonhurst.[53][57][58] Navin Khanna, the eldest son of Vipin Khanna, has business interests in the commodities trading, real estate, alcohol, food, drinks, and general trading industries.[59][60][61][62] The eldest child of Vinod K. Khanna, Sundeep Khanna, has business interests in agriculture, solar power, natural gas power, utilities, cooling, real estate, hospitality, and consultancy.[63][64] Vinod K. Khanna's younger son, Rajesh Khanna, has business interests in mining concessions, commodities trading, and real estate.[65][66] Rahul Khanna, the son of Navin Khanna, has business interests in the hospitality industry in London, England.[33][67] Adhiraj Khanna and Suryaveer Khanna, the sons of Arvind Khanna, have business interests in the defence, aerospace, and space industries, and they own proprietary investment management and wealth management corporate entities.[68][69][70] Vinita Khanna Singh, the daughter of Vipin Khanna, has business interests in the cyber intelligence and cybersecurity industries.[71][72][73]
Beginning in the 2020s, members of the Khanna family became involved in entrepreneurial businesses and venture capital investing. Aditya Khanna co-founded Bharat Supply in 2024, which was originally established as Faarms in 2020 and merged with Connect India E-Commerce Services in 2024 to form Bharat Supply, a logistics technology, e-commerce, and financial technology company focused on rural India.[53][74][75] Shivin Khanna, the son of Rajesh Khanna, founded a financial technology startup and has been an investor in the craft beer company Bira 91.[76][77] Shreya Khanna, the daughter of Rajesh Khanna, has been an investor in Bira 91.[78] Rajeshwari Kumari, the daughter of Vinita Khanna Singh, founded her own luxury Indian designer brand.[79]
From the 1960s to the 2020s, the Khanna family's business and financial activities have been scrutinized and linked to various controversies.[1]
Vipin Khanna's business activities in the Indian defence industry attracted significant media scrutiny from the 1980s to 2019, and he frequently faced allegations of being one of India's largest and most powerful arms dealers.[29][80][81] Vipin Khanna was also alleged to have worked with various foreign defence and aerospace companies in India.[12][82][83] In 2001, Vipin Khanna was even named as one of the three largest Indian arms dealers during Operation West End, a sting operation conducted by the news magazine Tehelka, which aimed to expose corruption in the Indian defence industry.[83] During the 2007 bribery investigation into Securency, the banknote printing company of the Reserve Bank of Australia, which was at the time, the largest foreign bribery investigation in Australian history, it was revealed that Securency had worked with Vipin Khanna and Aditya Khanna to secure contracts for printing polymer banknotes.[84][85] Throughout his business career, from the 1990s to 2022, Arvind Khanna faced media scrutiny over alleged links to various defence contracts and was reported in the media to be a central figure in the approval of foreign procurement deals within the Indian defence industry.[1][86][87]
In 1969, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) initiated an inquiry into the products that Shanti Lal Khanna's company, Delhi Small Scale Industries, had supplied to the Ministry of Defence.[88] The company was cleared of any wrongdoing in the same year.[89] In the 1980s and 1990s, Vinod K. Khanna was scrutinized for influencing Indian government contracts in favor of foreign companies.[90][91][92] In 2022, the real estate holdings Vinod K. Khanna's company had originally acquired in Bangalore, in 1973, were scrutinized by the Karnataka Legislative Council.[93][94] From the 1980s until his death in 2019, and despite a lack of evidence and the investigations into him being dropped, Vipin Khanna was investigated for links to various arms deals, including the Barak Missile scandal, and several other arms deals.[95][82] In the 2005, Aditya Khanna was linked to allegations of financially benefiting from corruption in the United Nations' Oil-for-Food Programme until he was cleared of all accusations by the Pathak Inquiry Authority.[96][97] In 2009, Arvind Khanna's company was accused of influencing the then Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) to secure a contract; however, the Delhi High Court acquitted his company.[98][97]
In the 1980s, Vinod K. Khanna was accused by the Rajya Sabha of having secret offshore accounts and front companies, and in 2020, Switzerland's federal gazette published that Vinod K. Khanna had a Swiss bank account.[90][99] In 2006, Vipin Khanna was investigated by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for having offshore companies and bank accounts; however, the case against him was dropped due to lack of evidence.[100][101] Other foreign fund transfers and alleged financial routing by members of the Khanna family have also been scrutinized by the Indian government and the media.[102][103] In 2013, information about Navin Khanna's shareholding in a company based in the British Virgin Islands was leaked in the Offshore Leaks published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.[60]
Various members of the Khanna family have been involved in politics and other politically related activities. In the 1990s, Arvind Khanna entered Indian politics.[104] Arvind Khanna has held various elected and political party positions.[105][106][107] Vipin Khanna served as the Honorary Consul of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in New Delhi from 1996 to 2005.[3] Vinod K. Khanna was the Honorary Consul of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay in India, was the founding Chairman of the Indo-Zaire Friendship Association, and was the Chairman of the Indo-Kenya Friendship Association.[108] Vinod K. Khanna also assisted in establishing the first land trade route between India and Bangladesh at the Petropole-Benapole Border Crossing in the 1970s, and in the 1990s, he facilitated the first-ever trade of Indian agricultural commodities with the Government of Bangladesh.[20]
Members of the Khanna family are related to other individuals and families in politics and diplomacy.[116] Ravi Khanna's wife, Amrit Kumari Khanna, and Vipin Khanna's wife, Naginder Kumari Khanna, were daughters of Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala, who was a member of the British Empire's Imperial War Cabinet during World War I and represented India at the League of Nations.[117][118][119] Naginder Kumari Khanna and Amrit Kumari Khanna were the paternal aunts of Amarinder Singh, the former Chief Minister of Punjab.[120][121][35] They were also sisters of Yadavindra Singh, the last Maharaja of Patiala, who later served as the Indian Ambassador to Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Nations.[118][120][121] Naginder Kumari Khanna and Amrit Kumari Khanna were sisters-in-law of Romesh Bhandari, former Lieutenant Governor of Delhi and former Governor of Uttar Pradesh, and sisters-in-law of Rajendra Narayan Singh Deo, former Chief Minister of Odisha and the last ruling Maharaja of Patna.[12][122] Members of the Khanna family are also related through familial relations to Natwar Singh, the former External Affairs Minister of India.[42][123]
Some members of the Khanna family, and their close and extended relatives, have participated in various sports. In professional sports, Navin Khanna is a former professional polo player who also owned a polo team with 20 polo ponies; Arvind Khanna is a former golfer who also helped other professional golfers financially; and Rajeshwari Kumari is an Olympic-level trap shooter and she won a silver medal in the 2022 Asian Games.[124][125][126][127] Vinita Khanna Singh's husband and Rajeshwari Kumari's father Randhir Singh, is also a former Olympic-level shooter.[128]
The family has also been involved in the sports industry. From 1997 to 2006, Arvind Khanna's Tiger Corporation joint venture company, Tiger Sports Marketing managed the Indian Golf Tour.[129] In 2006, Tiger Sports Marketing established the first Professional Golf Tour of India.[130][131] Navin Khanna owned a polo team.[132] Aditya Khanna was a co-founder of Punjab Kings, which was known at the time as Kings XI Punjab, an Indian Premier League cricket team founded in 2008, and Arvind Khanna was also a co-owner of the team.[133][134]
Members of the family, along with their close and extended relatives, have held positions in sports administration. Arvind Khanna served as the president of the Professional Golfers Association of India, president of the Fencing Association of India, and as the Secretary-General of the Punjab Olympic Association.[4][135][136] Vinita Khanna Singh's husband, Randhir Singh, has been a member of the International Olympic Committee, is serving as the Acting President of the Olympic Council of Asia, and has also held other positions in sports administration.[137][128][138] Through their wives, Ravi Khanna, who was married to Amrit Kumari Khanna, and Vipin Khanna, who was married to Naginder Kumari Khanna, were sons-in-law of Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala, one of the co-founders of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the national governing body of cricket in India.[139][140][117][120]
Various members of the Khanna family have been involved in philanthropy and social work. Arvind Khanna founded the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Umeed Foundation in 1997.[141][107] The Umeed (which translates to hope in Hindi) Foundation is one of Punjab's largest NGOs and is involved in healthcare, employment generation, and social and economic support initiatives.[142][143][144] Rajesh Khanna, his wife, Priya Khanna (née Mehra), and their children, Shivin Khanna, Shreya Khanna serve on the board of the Mehra Foundation.[145] The foundation was founded by Priya Khanna's grandfather, Ram Gopal Mehra, in 1968.[145] The Mehra Foundation is involved in healthcare, education, academia, and scholarship initiatives.[146]
Aditya Khanna is involved with multiple of Indian and global NGOs, and is on the advisory board of the UN's UNAIDS Health Innovation Exchange.[147] Sundeep Khanna is a member of Rotary International and served as the President of the Rotary Club of Delhi Garden City.[148][149]
Members of the Khanna family, across multiple generations, have also been involved in various other fields and activities. Ravi Khanna, the eldest son of Shanti Lal Khanna, was a lieutenant colonel in the Indian Army's Brigade of the Guards regiment.[150][151] Priya Khanna is an art restorer and owns Art Life Restoration Studio, one of India's largest private art conservation studios.[152][153][154] Priya Khanna has worked on projects including the restoration of the art in the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in the aftermath of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.[155]
The Khanna family is related to other families. Vinod K. Khanna's wife, Nirmal Kumari Khanna, was the daughter of Trilok Nath Shankardass and a member of the Shankardass family, which was a notable Kenyan Indian business family from Nairobi, Kenya.[18] Adhiraj Khanna married Tanya Chadha Khanna, the younger daughter of liquor industrialist and philanthropist Raju Chadha, the niece of industrialist and liquor baron Ponty Chadha, and a member of the Chadha family.[156][157][158]
The sisters Naginder Kumari Khanna and Amrit Kumari Khanna, former princesses of the historical Patiala royal family and the wives of Vipin Khanna and Ravi Khanna, respectively, were direct descendants of Raja Ala Singh, the 18th-century founder and first ruler of Patiala, and members of the Phulkian dynasty.[35][118][159][160] Both sisters held princely titles in India until their abolition in 1971 through the 26th Amendment to the Constitution of India.[35][117][118]
Notable members and descendants of the Khanna family include:
Notable individuals and members of notable families who have married into the Khanna family include:
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.