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Indian Hotels: Ajit Kerkar Controversy
The Rise of Kerkar
Kerkar joined IHCL in January 1962 as assistant catering manager. He began his career with J. Lyon & Company in London where he qualified in hoteliering. Climbing the ladder quickly, Kerkar became the general manager of the badly managed and poorly run Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai, in 1968.In 1970, he became its managing director. Kerkar was one of the 'super managers' appointed by JRD Tata, who were given full freedom to run the different wings of the family empire in their individual ways. Over the next 27 years, Kerkar built up IHCL as India's largest and most profitable hospitality company. In the 1970s, IHCL expanded in a major way in Delhi, Madras, Goa and Rajasthan. This was seen as a major achievement for Kerkar as he succeeded despite very little financial help from the Tatas. By the 1980s, the once sick hotel had turned into a chain embracing the US and Europe. Kerkar funded the expansion of the IHCL flagship Taj Hotel by floating different companies, with different partners. |
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Kerkar pioneered the concept of an's palace hotels and resort hotels of Goa. He enhanced India's status as a tourist attraction by developing Rajasthan and Goa as tourist destinations. Kerkar had a well-polished public image and established himself as a capable executive. He was regarded as the man who almost single-handedly converted a one-hotel company into a thriving hotel chain with an international presence. Ultimately however, the Kerkar era came to an end on August 30, 1997, not with canape and champagne, but with anger and acrimony.
