Ajay Singh (Entrepreneur) Age, Wife, Children, Family, Biography & More

Some Lesser Known Facts About Ajay Singh

• Ajay Singh is an Indian entrepreneur. He is also a sports administrator, bureaucrat, and investor. Ajay Singh co-founded SpiceJet, India’s second-largest airline, in 2005 and worked with the company till 2010. In February 2015, he rejoined SpiceJet as its chief shareholder, Chairman, and Managing Director.

• Ajay Singh’s father belonged to Alwar, and his mother hailed from Meerut. He was born and brought up in Delhi’s Maharani Bagh area.

• During his school and college days, Ajay Singh actively participated in sports and was a sports enthusiast. He was the captain of his school’s Cricket and Hockey teams. Reportedly, he represented his school in several Football tournaments.

• Reportedly, Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan was Ajay Singh’s junior at St. Columba’s School. When Ajay Singh was appointed as the captain of their school’s cricket team, Shah Rukh Khan was chosen as the wicket-keeper.

• When Ajay Singh was studying at Cornwell University, he served as the president of the university’s India Association. Soon after completing his MBA from Cornell University, Singh came back to India and joined his family’s business of real estate and fashion accessories.

• In 1996, Ajay Singh was appointed as the board member of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) by the then transport minister of Delhi, Rajendra Gupta. According to some media sources, under Singh’s administration, DTC’s fleet of 300 buses rose to around 6,000 in just 2 years.

• In 1998, Pramod Mahajan was appointed as the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister of India. Soon after his appointment, Mahajan appointed Ajay Singh as his officer on special duty (OSD) and gave him the responsibility of transforming and redrafting ‘Doordarshan.’ Under the administration of Ajay Singh as the OSD, Doordarshan launched its two new channels – DD Sports and DD News. Reportedly, Mahajan was so impressed by the performance of Ajay Singh that when he (Mahajan) shuffled the Telecom ministry, he took Singh along with him.

• In 2005, Ajay Singh, along with Bhupendra Kansagra, acquired and renamed grounded ModiLuft Airlines to SpiceJet. Reportedly, SpiceJet sold 38,000 tickets on its first day of operation and had a load factor of over 90%. His main objective to co-found SpiceJet was to make airline tickets affordable to all Indians. In 2010, he left SpiceJet when the airline had over INR 800 crores in the bank.
  

  Ajay Singh posing with a SpiceJet aeroplane

• In 2010, Ajay Singh bought Daewoo Motors India Ltd.; however, he failed to revive this debt-ridden company.

• During the 2004 and 2014 general election campaigns of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Ajay Singh played a crucial role in organising the publicity campaigns of the party. In the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections, the slogan, “Abki Baar Modi Sarkaar”, which took the entire nation by storm, was coined by Ajay Singh. The opposition parties often referred to him as,
  

  Chhota Ambani or Chhota Adani of Narendra Modi for being privileged under Modi’s political clout.”

• Ajay Singh is often featured in the political advertisements of the Bharatiya Janata Party and is considered the right hand of the party. Reportedly, his association with the BJP and his experience in business made his business grow high over the years.

• Soon after Ajay Singh left SpiceJet, the control of the company was taken over by Kalanithi Maran, Sun Group’s Chairman and Managing Director. However, Kalanithi Maran failed in controlling the company’s expenses, which led the company to huge debts by the end of 2015. Nonetheless, in 2015, Ajay Singh came back into the system and bought Maran’s majority shares.
  

  Ajay Singh while unfurling the flag of SpiceJet

• In April 2015, SpiceJet appointed his wife, Shivani Singh, as the woman director of the company. ^[4]The Economic Times

• On 25 September 2016, Ajay Singh was elected as the President of the Boxing Federation of India.

• In 2017, according to a media report, Ajay Singh re-acquired the company from Maran by paying just two rupees. This transaction marked the lowest amount at which a listed company has ever been taken over in India.

• In 2017, when Donald Trump was the President of the US, under the administration of Ajay Singh, SpiceJet placed an order for 205 Boeing aircraft, one of the largest companies in American history. The then-president of America stated in a media conference that this mega-deal would help in creating tens of thousands of jobs in the United States. This Boeing order was followed up by SpiceJet with 50 Bombardier Q400 planes, and this Boeing order was considered the single-biggest order for the aircraft in the history of Bombardier.
  

  Ajay Singh posing with US Vice President Pence in 2017

• In January 2019, Ajay Singh was appointed as the Chairman of the Aviation, Travel, and Tourism (ATT) Governor’s Meeting at the World Economic Forum, Davos, and upon this, he became the first Indian to chair the same position. In the same year, he was designated to the Board of Governors of the International Air Transport Association. Later, Ajay Singh was appointed as the Chairman of the CII National Committee on Civil Aviation and the Chairman of the World Travel and Tourism Council, India Initiative.

• Later, Ajay Singh started working as an advisor to the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology of India. In this Ministry, he helped in drafting the National Telecom Policy and Information Technology Act. During his tenure as an advisor in the Ministry of Telecommunications, Ajay Singh played an essential role in lowering the charges of mobile calls in India while assisting in revolutionising the telecom and IT industries in India.

• In January 2021, Ajay Singh was re-appointed as the President of the Boxing Federation of India and Associate Vice President of the Indian Olympic Association.

• Reportedly, as an angel investor, he has stakes in a nanotechnology company in Bangalore and an IT company in Mumbai. In addition, he has also made investments in a real estate company, which builds luxury apartments in central Delhi.

• According to some media sources, Ajay Singh holds a public-private partnership with the Delhi government for operating low-floor buses.

• On 11 July 2022, a complainant Amit Arora filed an FIR against Ajay Singh for delivering a fake depository instruction slip (DIS) of shares worth Rs 10 lakh for services provided to him. Delhi police registered the case under sections 406, 409, 415, 417, 418, and 420 of the IPC at Sushant Lok police station in New Delhi. ^[5]News9live On 12 July 2022, SpiceJet stated that the complaint against Ajay Singh was completely bogus and the company would file a defamation suit against the complainant. During the same day, an official of SpiceJet stated in a media conference that the complaint was merely lodged to defame SpiceJet and Ajay Singh. ^[6]India TV He spoke,
  

  A frivolous, mischievous, and completely bogus complaint has been filed by a liquor dealer Amit Arora with the Gurugram police with an intention to hurt SpiceJet and Ajay Singh’s image.”

  

  Ajay Singh in a media conference