history
The Bajaj Group is involved in many activities: home appliances, lighting, iron and steel, insurance, travel and finance. And, of course, Bajaj Group is also known in many countries for its two and three wheels machines.
The roots of the company can be traced in 1926, with Jamnalal Bajaj, the founder of the group and disciple of Mahatma Gandhi. Jamnalal's son, Kamalnayan Bajaj, was the one who consolidated the company and diversified into many other activities. Jamnalal Bajaj was an industrialist who admired and followed the great Mahatma Ghandi. His name is 00on quite a few institutions in India, the most famous being the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies.
In the group there are now 27 companies, the most important being Bajaj Auto Ltd, Mukand Ltd, Bajaj Electricals Ltd and Bajaj Hindustan Ltd. .Bajaj Motorcycle company was founded in 1945. At first, this company was just selling two and three wheelers but 14 years later, in 1959, it got the license for manufacturing its own motorcycles.
In 1970, the company produced 100,000th vehicle and 7 years later, it managed to produce and sell 100,000 vehicles. In 1971, the company launched a three wheels vehicle and a year later, the first Bajaj scooter, Chetak, born. Based on Vespa, it was named after the legendary horse of Indian warrior Rana Pratap Singh.
The year 1985 brought a new record for the company, 500,000 being the number of sold motorcycles. Ten years later, Bajaj rolled out its ten millionth vehicle and sold 1 million vehicles in a year. In 1986, the company launched the Bajaj M-80 and the Kawasaki Bajaj KB100 and made a huge party cake for all those half million of units sold in the financial year. Now, the company manufactures a few models: CT100, Platina, Discover 110cc, 125cc and 135cc, XCD 125, Pulsar 150, 180, 200 and 220 and Avenger. On the list of the company there are a few models too: Blade, Sonic, Pulsar 300 and Discover 150.
In November 2007, Bajaj Auto acquired 14.5% stake in KTM Power Sports AG, this company providing the know-how for joint development of the water-cooled 4 stroke 125 and 250 cc engines. In return, Bajaj will distribute KTM products in this Asian zone. At the beginning of 2008, Managing Director Rajiv Bajaj confirmed the collaboration and announced the company would increase the stake in KTM to 25%.
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