[TusharK]

Jagdish Khattar, the former managing director of Maruti Suzuki, has passed away after suffering a cardiac arrest. He was 78 years old.



Khattar joined Maruti Udyog Limited in 1993 as Director (Marketing). In 1999, he was appointed Managing Director. He retired from Maruti in 2007, post which, he set up a multi-brand car sales and service network called Carnation.

Khattar was an officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). Before joining Maruti Suzuki, he served as the joint secretary in the Union Ministry of Steel and held various administrative positions in the Uttar Pradesh government.

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[mayjay]

Really sad news. He was one of the stalwarts of the industry and will be remembered for his work at Maruti.

RIP!

[R_Gowardhan]

Really sad to hear about his demise. I remember seeing him on Tv news & reading his name in the papers whenever there was some news on Maruti since childhood.

Maruti Suzuki weathered the competition of newer breed of car brands coming ashore from all over the world in the late 90s under his leadership and lead the company to a position where it is sitting comfortably even today.

Sad that Carnation did not see similar success inspite the fact that the business idea was ahead of its time.

May you Rest in Peace Sir.

[JoshMachine]

Originally Posted by TusharK

Jagdish Khattar, the former managing director of Maruti Suzuki, has passed away after suffering a cardiac arrest. He was 78 years old.

Salute to the Automotive Man of Modern Day India

He helped Maruti Suzuki undertake a transformation, never seen before in India's context.
Even though his post-Maruti stint (Carnation) didn't bring the same amount of honors, but he was clearly a man that wanted to bring about new business models all the time.

Great loss for the industry, losing such a visionary.

RIP, Mr. Khattar

[arindambasu13]

A real legend and stalwart of the Indian automotive sector. A year fraught with bad news continues to get worse. Rest in peace Sir.

[itwasntme]

Hope CBI completes the fraud investigation quickly and either clears him or pinpoints the culprits. The allegation was of direct fraud masterminded and executed by Carnation.

[Totoro11]

Sad news indeed. I loved the concept of Carnation and it would have gone a long way in breaking the service & spares monopoly of OEMs.

[GTO]

May God bless his soul. He will surely be remembered for his massive contribution at Maruti-Suzuki and in that position, he influenced the Indian Car Industry too. But he will also be remembered for the Carnation debacle & gross mismanagement. From all the reading I've done, his heart was in the right place with Carnation initially, but it was horribly executed, and led to poor business practices & complete lack of ethics toward the end. When the situation became dire / desperate, there was wilful fraud committed.

Man wrote a good book on his career & Maruti, although if you're interested, you should read Bhargava's exceptional Maruti book first.

[sachin_cs]

May the departed soul rest in peace. He was also the cnbc man of the year 2008.
I was not aware that IAS officers could also take charge as head of an automobile company, it surely was an interesting find for me.

[DicKy]

May God bless the departed soul.

At the turn of the millennium came across a magazine featuring the small car market of India. As a child vividly remember the front cover. It had a top view of four cars (Alto, Indica, Santro, Mariz) and the faces of the MDs/CEOs, including Mr. Khattar, superimposed on the top of the cars.

The article was pretty pessimistic about Maruti and Tata's future prospects, while writing that Hyundai and Daewoo were set to swallow the Indian market.

Five years later the article was proved terribly wrong, when Maruti launched the Swift under his leadership. There has been no turning back for the company ever since.

Originally Posted by sachin_cs

I was not aware that IAS officers could also take charge as head of an automobile company, it surely was an interesting find for me.

Right from the start till the late 2000s, Maruti always had a senior management filled with ex-government servants. Even the current chairman was a former IAS who was asked to join the company in the early 80s.

[Ashdel]

RIP Sir.

Very few people know that he even joined one of the biggest BPO in India as Board of Directors after exiting from Maruti. I cant forget my memories of seeing him multiple times while i was working with that BPO company in Gurgaon in 2000's.

[sameerpb]

Rest in Peace Sir,

my memory is he helped me in getting Maruti Swift in zero wait time just with a phone call in 2009. The treatment dealer gave me was red carpet while wait time was 4-5 months.

[kannan666]

Dynamic man, pray that his soul rests in peace, Om Shanthi

[RGK]

He was at the helm of MSL when Swift Diesel was introduced which was a game-changer.

I think he brought a new initiative called "Atithi Devo Bhava" (“a guest is like God”). Unfortunately, it was not practised by any of their dealerships.

Om Shanthi.

[vaish9925]

Here's a picture of him with a slew of freshly baked Maruti Suzuki Esteems.

May his soul RIP.