Anji Reddy Biography 
Anji Reddy is an Indian industrialist and entrepreneur in the pharmaceutical industry. He founded Dr Reddy’s Labs in 1984 and serves as its Chairman. He is also serving as the corporate social responsibility wing of the group, Dr Reddy Foundation started in 1996.
He was born in 1940 in Tadepalli village near Guntur in Andhra Pradesh. His father is a farmer who grew turmeric. He did his schooling at Anapthana ZPHS School in Nutakki until Tenth standard. He got his first Bachelor of Science degree from A. C. College at Guntur in the year 1958 and then did his B. Sc – Tech in Pharmaceuticals and Fine chemicals from University of Bombay. He obtained his Ph. D in chemical engineering from National Chemical Laboratory in Pune in 1969.
His career started with PSU, Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited and he left his job to join Uniloids Ltd in the year 1976 and served as the managing director of the firm until 1980. Then he founded Standard Organics Limited in 1980 and then Dr Reddy’s Labs in 1984. The initial amount of capital was Rs 25 lakhs. Later this saw huge growth and became a huge export oriented industry.
In the 1980s Dr Reddy’s Labs was depending upon import and in 1990s this changed to self reliance and today this plunged into export oriented industry. This is the first company that started drug discovery research in India in the year 1993. In April 2001 this became the first company in Asia outside Japan to be listed in the Stock Exchange of New York. In the financial year 2006, the revenue of the company was $546 million.
He serves as a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Trade and Industry and Board of Governors of the Institute of Chemical Technology in University of Mumbai. He is serving as the Chairman of Hyderabad Eye Research Foundation and as a board member of Vision Research Foundation. His company founded Naandi Foundation the non-profit organization for the eradication of poverty.
He has received many awards like Sir PC Ray award, FAPA Ishidate Award for Pharmaceutical Research in 1998. He was voted by Business India magazine as the Businessman of the Year 2001. He received Achiever of the Year Award in 2000 by CHEMTECH Foundation. He received Padma Shri award by Government of India in 2001 and Padma Bhushan award in 2011.
Published: N/A
Updated: March 16, 2013
