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Chaudhary Group President Binod Chaudhary
As more information on the true scope of destruction in Nepal filters through following last month’s devastating 7.9 magnitude earthquake, the country’s richest man and President of the hugely successful Chaudhary Group (CG), Binod Chaudhary is on the frontlines of the recovery effort.
Parallel to domestic and international relief efforts, Chaudhary announced that CG would also be mobilising company funds worth Nepalese Rupees 250 million towards support for quake victims.
CG has also pledged itself to construct 1,000 temporary homes in the districts hardest hit by the quake and provide them to victims free of cost within the next six months while construction on a further 9,000 homes has already been initiated in collaboration with foreign donor agencies and other organisations.
Speaking to a group of his employees shortly in the parking lot of the company’s damaged headquarters shortly after the quake, Chaudhary’s immediate attention had been focused on what CG could do to mitigate the immense suffering of his countrymen.
“We are the lucky ones. Let’s move from now to that stage where we are able to help people in villages build their homes. We need to help them,” he had stated.
The Nepal Government estimates that more than 600 schools have been damaged and nearly 300,000 houses have been completely or partially destroyed.
Since the quake, the Chaudhary Group says it has distributed 500,000 packets of noodles, thousands of cartons of juice and seven tons of other food and water. It has also set up a relief centre with doctors in Kathmandu.
It is poignant to note that Binod Chaudhary’s grandfather, Bhuramull Chaudhary was himself awarded retail space following a rebuilding effort launched after a catastrophic earthquake hit the region in 1933.
Chaudhary’s family originated in Kathmandu where he grandfather operated a small textile store which his father later converted into Nepal’s first department store.
Upon taking up the reins of the family business, he transformed the store over a period of 40 years into a conglomerate that is now considered to be one of the largest corporate houses in Nepal.
Today, CG stands as a highly diversified transnational conglomerate comprised of nearly 80 companies spanning five continents.
The group operates across numerous sectors including automobiles, bio-tech, cement manufacture, education, electronics, energy, financial services, healthcare, FMCG, hotels and resorts, telecom and entertainment.
The Group holds more than 60 brands in 30 countries , the most well-known being ‘Wai Wai’ noodles; a brand so well known in Nepal that it has earned Chaudhary the affectionate moniker of ‘the noodle king’.
Notably, Chaudhary has also emphasised the need to move beyond relief efforts to focus on reconstruction without which he warns, the Nepalese economy could remain in a state of extended paralysis.
“The economy will suffer a huge setback if we don’t act immediately. People will lose heart and start pulling out even more. Or it will be an awakening and people will come together. That the Nepalese are capable of doing,” Chaudhary stated.
More than two million Nepalis already work overseas—most of them in India and Persian Gulf countries—sending home the equivalent of close to 30% of the country’s gross domestic product comes in remittances.
The death-toll following the earthquake has been staggering, climbing to over 7,500 while most buildings in the disaster-stricken districts closest to the epicentre of the quake have been deemed unsafe or uninhabitable.
The impact on Nepalese culture has also been devastating with centuries old temples and monuments listed by UNESCO as being of global importance having been reduced to rubble.
The impact on Nepalese culture has also been devastating with centuries old temples and monuments listed by UNESCO as being of global importance having been reduced to rubble
The death-toll following the earthquake has been staggering, climbing to over 7,500 while most buildings in the disaster-stricken districts closest to the epicentre of the quake have been deemed unsafe or uninhabitable
