Sajjan Jindal (born 5 December 1959) is an Indian industrialist, the chairman and managing director of the JSW Group. The second of the four sons of the steel pioneer Om Prakash Jindal, he built a small rolling mill near Mumbai into JSW Steel, one of the largest steel makers in India, and extended the group into power, cement, paints, ports and cars.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Sajjan Jindal |
| Born | 5 December 1959 |
| Age | 66 |
| Education | M. S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore (B.E. in mechanical engineering) |
| Occupation | Industrialist |
| Position | Chairman and Managing Director, JSW Group |
| Parents | O. P. Jindal and Savitri Jindal |
| Spouse | Sangita Jindal |
| Children | 3 |
Early Life
He is the son of Om Prakash Jindal, who started with a bucket-making unit at Hisar in Haryana and built a steel empire, later becoming a minister in the Haryana government, and of Savitri Jindal, who entered politics after her husband’s death and is counted among the richest women in India. His brothers are Prithviraj, Ratan and Naveen Jindal.
He studied mechanical engineering at the M. S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology in Bangalore.
Career
Beginnings
He joined the family business in 1982. Sent to Mumbai to look after its western operations, he took charge of a small steel unit at Tarapur and in 1989 set up Jindal Iron and Steel Company.
Vijayanagar
In 1994 he began his most ambitious project: a large integrated steel plant at Toranagallu, in the iron-ore country of Bellary district in Karnataka, a short distance from the ruins of Hampi. It used a newer process that did not need coking coal of the highest grade. The plant, which started production at the end of the 1990s, has been expanded many times and is now one of the largest steel works in the country.
His father divided the business among his four sons before his death in a helicopter crash in 2005. Sajjan’s share became the JSW Group; the two steel companies were merged that year as JSW Steel.
Growth
- **Acquisitions:** JSW bought the troubled Ispat Industries in 2010 and Bhushan Power and Steel through the bankruptcy process, and has plants in several states and abroad
- **JSW Energy:** thermal, hydro and renewable power
- **JSW Cement** and **JSW Paints**
- **JSW Infrastructure:** ports and terminals, listed on the stock exchanges in 2023
- **Cars:** in 2023 the group formed a joint venture with the Chinese company SAIC to run MG Motor in India, and has announced plans for electric vehicles of its own
Industry roles
He has been president of the Indian Steel Association and was chairman of the World Steel Association for 2021–22, the first Indian to hold the post.
Sport
Through JSW Sports the group owns the football club Bengaluru FC and a share of the Delhi Capitals cricket team, and runs the Inspire Institute of Sport at Vijayanagar, a training centre for Olympic disciplines. It has supported athletes including Neeraj Chopra. His son Parth leads these ventures.
Controversy
In December 2023 the Mumbai police registered a complaint of sexual assault made against him by a woman. He denied the allegation. The police filed a closure report saying they had found no evidence, which a magistrate accepted in March 2024, and in December 2025 the Bombay High Court dismissed the complainant’s plea to reopen the case.
Personal Life
He is married to Sangita Jindal, who chairs the JSW Foundation, the group’s social arm, and is known for her support of art and of the conservation of monuments at Hampi and elsewhere. They have two daughters, Tarini and Tanvi, and a son, Parth. He lives in Mumbai and is a practitioner of yoga and meditation.
Featured image: Sajjan Jindal in 2016. Photo by JSW Group, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
