When Kochouseph Chittilappilly decided to donate one of his kidneys at the age of 60, the recipient was not a relative, friend or business associate. He was an unknown truck driver suffering from kidney disease.
In 2011, two months after turning 60, Chittilappilly underwent a four-hour surgery in Kochi to donate his kidney. His original idea was even more ambitious: he wanted his donation to trigger a chain of kidney exchanges, with a member of the recipient's family donating to another patient, and so on. The proposed chain eventually broke down, but Chittilappilly went ahead with his donation.
More than a decade later, the Kerala entrepreneur is back in the spotlight for a very different reason. His real-estate company, Veegaland Developers, has opened its Rs 210-crore initial public offering (IPO), taking another business to the capital markets.
Forbes currently estimates Chittilappilly's net worth at $1.2 billion, or roughly Rs 11,400 crore. His wealth mainly came from the electrical appliances business he started in 1977, followed by his expansion into amusement parks and, later, real estate.
Kochouseph Chittilappilly's entrepreneurial journey began after an unsuccessful attempt to build a career in science.