Something is striking about being born into an industrial family and still having to find your own way into business.
Sharayu Daftary was born in 1933 into the Hirachand family, closely connected to the industrial legacy of Walchand Hirachand. She grew up around a world where business was already part of the family identity. But there was one problem. As a woman, she was not expected to enter the family business. Instead of accepting that boundary, she decided to build something of her own.
In 1958, at just 25, Daftary started Bharat Radiators with a capital of ₹2 lakh and five workers. It was an engineering and automobile ancillary business, a field that was hardly an obvious choice for a young woman at the time. She went on to remain closely associated with the company for decades, serving as its managing director and later continuing as a director. Corporate records show her association with Bharat Radiators going back to January 1958.
But perhaps the most interesting part of her story is not that she entered industry. It is how she chose to run a business.
Daftary believed that a company could be successful without treating its workers as numbers. In an earlier profile, she spoke about having gone 32 years without a strike, a go-slow or loss of manpower. She also described giving workers responsibility for checking the quality of their own work rather than simply placing inspectors over them. Her approach was based on trust, responsibility and a close understanding of the shop floor.
That philosophy can be summed up in a phrase used to describe her work ethic: “need not greed.” It sounds simple, but it says a lot about the kind of business leader she wanted to be. For Daftary, building a company did not seem to mean accumulating as much as possible. It meant building something that could last while keeping people within the business visible.
Her career also became a series of firsts.
In 1971, she became the first woman president of the Automotive Components Manufacturers Association. Ten years later, in 1981, she became the first elected woman president of the Indian Merchants’ Chamber. She was also the first woman to serve on FICCI’s executive committee. These were not merely titles. Each one meant entering institutions where women had rarely occupied the top positions.
Her recognition eventually extended beyond the business world. In 2004, the Government of India awarded her the Padma Shri in the field of Trade and Industry. The award placed her name among the country's recognised contributors to Indian industry.
Yet there was another side to Daftary's life that is easy to miss if her story is reduced to a list of corporate achievements.
She was a committed Jain and became deeply involved in Jain community institutions. She served as president of the Dakshin Bharat Jain Sabha and was associated with Jain Bodhak, a Jain publication. Her understanding of Jainism also shaped the way she spoke about women's rights. She argued that equality between men and women was not a modern concession to women, but something already present within Jain thought—the idea that women deserved dignity, freedom of thought and opportunity just as men did.
That belief makes her story more interesting than a conventional tale of a woman “breaking the glass ceiling.”
She did not simply enter a male-dominated industry and compete on its terms. She brought her own ideas about work, responsibility and human dignity into it. Her employees reportedly called her “Tai,” a word carrying the warmth of an elder sister. That small detail perhaps tells us more about her style of leadership than any corporate designation could.
There was also a personal support system behind that journey. Daftary was married to Arvind Gaurishankar Daftary, and the couple had three daughters. Her professional life did not exist separately from her family life, but neither was it treated as something she had to give up because she was a wife or mother.
Sharayu Daftary died in 2025 at the age of 91. Her obituary from the Institute of Jain Studies remembered her not only as an industrialist but also as a philanthropist and Jain leader.
Her life leaves behind an interesting question about what success is supposed to look like.
We often remember business leaders through the companies they built, the money they made or the positions they occupied. Daftary's story suggests another measure: the people who stayed with them, the institutions they opened up for others, and the values they carried into places that were not designed with them in mind.
She entered business because a door had been closed to her.
But perhaps the more important part of her legacy is that she did not spend her life trying to prove that she deserved to enter someone else's room.
She built her own.
References
- Institute of Jain Studies. (2025). ISJS pays tribute to Sharayu Daftary (1933–2025).
- Jain Samaj. (2015). Sharayu Daftary: Founder, Bharat Radiators Ltd.
- Rajya Sabha Secretariat. (2005). Statement showing Padma award recipients. Government of India.