Laljibhai Patel

Laljibhai Patel (born 28 November 1955) is an Indian diamantaire, a philanthropic social activist, and the chairman of Dharmanandan Diamonds Pvt. Ltd. (DDPL) He has been the head Dharmanandan Diamonds Group of Companies (Revenue - US$1.5 Billion) for over four and a half decades.

After moving to Surat City from his hometown, Ugamedi, in 1974-75 Laljibhai Patel began his career as a diamond trader.

In 1985, along with his childhood friend Tulsibhai Goti, Laljibhai founded a small diamond manufacturing unit named Shreeji Gems.

The company grew, and in 1993, it was registered as a partnership firm and renamed Dharmanandan Diamonds.

On 1 January 2006, Surat glimpsed a massive gathering of 1.2 million people from throughout Gujarat who all took oath in the witness of Ladu Prasadam that we will never do female foeticide and prevent others from doing the same.

Limca Book of Records has proudly acknowledged this program.

This vast movement helped improve the gender ratio in Gujarat at 920 girls to 1000 boys in contrast to 761 girls in the year 2006 and has created psychological change, people start believing that girls are in no way less than boys.

The discrimination is reduced to the level that people started celebrating the birth of a girl child as they do for the birth of a boy child.

Growing up as a farmer's son, Laljibhai has always been concerned about rainwater conservation.

He knew how uncertain rain affects annual crop yield.

To resolve this, water conservation at a very large capacity was necessary.

To start in that direction, in his native village Ugamedi in Botad district of Gujarat, he dug three ponds of 3.5 km in length, up to 45 feet deep and 400 feet wide that can store nearly 5 crore liter of fresh water, making them largest artificial ponds in Gujarat.

The village river Sonal was supposed to fill these ponds, however, during the following weak monsoon, it was seen that these huge ponds could not be filled with river Sonal alone.

After pondering over the condition he analyzed that there is another large river Keri 2.5 km away from the village and of which the water flows in the ocean.

He diverted water from river Keri that was flowing away to river Sonal by RCC pipeline of 3 feet diameter to fill three huge ponds.

In this way, first time in India, he paid tribute to Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee for his vision of interlinking rivers.

This project aims to provide resolution to the perennial problem of water scarcity in the region.

The whole cost of the project is borne by Laljibhai on his own.

Laljibhai Patel acquired the Narendra Modi Suit for US$693,174 through an auction that was held for a noble cause of raising funds for the cleaning & preservation of the holy river Ganga, a symbol of great Indian heritage.

The suit is the world's most expensive clothing and holds the record with Guinness Book of World Records.

Being the Vice President of Kiran Hospital, Laljibhai Patel is contributing to the hospital's day-to-day necessity in terms of management.

Laljibhai has donated a handsome amount for the construction of the hospital, and as a part of it, a floor is named after Laljibhai's business, Dharmanandan Diamonds.

He is also sharing hospital bonds to underprivileged people free of cost to avail treatment at Kiran Hospital.

For the overall upliftment of the tribal area, Laljibhai Patel has built 10 schools in the Dang and Narmada district area, each of which has more than 500 tribal children studying.

Laljibhai himself studied in Gurukul and knows its importance.

For that, he is actively involved as a Trustee in Shree Swaminarayan Rajkot Gurukul with 53 branches in India and Worldwide, where the best character of 50000 children built up through real education & spiritual enlightenment.

Since its inception till 2021, more than 500,000 students are passed from these Gurukul branches together.

After 14 years, on August 31, 2007, it was formally incorporated as Dharmanandan Diamonds Pvt. Ltd., which manufactures polished diamonds in all shapes and sizes.

In November 2007, the company became a De Beers Sightholder.

Laljibhai was born at Ugamedi, a village in Botad district in the state of Gujarat, India, to a farmer family.

He moved to Rajkot to complete his secondary school.

He studied at Gurukul, Rajkot where he befriended his current business associate, Tulsibhai Goti.

Laljibhai is married to Nirmalaben and the couple has two sons.

Laljibhai has been involved in several philanthropic causes.

These include female foeticide, water conservation, education, health, and social illiteracy.

Under the presidency of Laljibhai, Samast Patidar Samaj organized the "Save the [female child] Mega Campaign" (Maha Laddu Beti Bachao Abhiya).

To encourage people to participate with empathy in this movement, handful of grains and a glass of water were collected from 235,000 households to create a gigantic Bundi laddu of 300,000 kg with a diameter of 65 feet and 35 feet of height.

Moreover, with an appeal to stop female foeticide and cultivate the attitude of equality towards girl child, 170,000 six-page informative booklets were distributed throughout the state.

Laljibhai Patel ranked in the top 10 wealthiest jewelers in India with a personal fortune of $480 million, a Wealth-X list of India's wealthiest jewelers released on July 1, 2015.

In 2015, he was honored with a lifetime achievement award by Retail Jewelers India for his contribution and success in the industry of luxury goods and his contribution to the betterment of society in Surat and throughout the State of Gujarat.