MESSAGE FROM THE MANAGING DIRECTOR

MESSAGE FROM THE MANAGING DIRECTOR

Ajay Harinath Singh (CMD Darwin Platform Group Of Companies)

A cash-rich, debt-free entity, investing in the sunrise industry and capitalizing on every available opportunity and committing our full suite of resources to this business objective is the clear vision and goal of the privately-held Darwin Platform Group of Companies.

With its basis in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh, the Jubraj Singh family ventured into the booming land banking business in the early 20th century and soon became owners of large tracts of land across the country. The family continued to flourish over the years, and soon emerged as one of the richest and most influential families in the 1930's.

Cut to 2010, when I entered the family business and realised the need to de-risk the business and diversify into various sunrise sectors. I realised that penetrating deeper into some of these promising sectors – Aviation, Oil & Refineries, Entertainment – and establishing separate business units/verticals in each was going to be the growth engine for the meteoric growth of the family business in the future.

The pursuit of this strategy led to the formation of the Darwin Platform Group of Companies. Today, the group is present in almost all promising sectors of the economy through strategic investments made via Darwin Platform Group of Companies - our main holding company.

The Darwin Platform Group of Companies today has a strong presence in Finance & Banking, Mining, Oil, Gas & Energy, Mixed Farming, Vineyards, Mass-media, Aviation, Logistics, Pharmaceuticals, Shipping, Realty, Infrastructure, Information Technology, Sports, Education and Charity.

The strong business reputation of the Group and market goodwill threw open several floodgates of investment opportunities for us in a host of private and state-owned entities and we entered into joint ventures with them.

These last two years, while the Darwin Platform Group of Companies has kept its eyes and ears open for new avenues of growth, it has not lost track of our corporate social responsibility towards the society at large too. The group operates a slew of 'free meal' centres, hospitals and schools for the disempowered sections of the society, not just in India, but wherever we have a corporate presence, across the world.

Most people predict this century to belong to India. The Darwin Platform Group of Companies sees this as a golden opportunity for the Group to spread its wings far and wide, across the globe both inorganically and organically through the verticals we currently operate in.

The Darwin Platform Group of Companies' ambition is to emerge as a truly global conglomerate with strong Indian roots and international business ethics. Over the coming years, the Group will continue to invest in potentially high-growth, such as the Information Technology and Aviation through its companies, diversify and de-risk our business interests to maximise value for all our stakeholders.

Ajay Harinath Singh

Chairman

Darwin Platform Group of Companies