| Om Prakash Jindal | |
| Birth Date: | 7 August 1930 |
| Birth Place: | Hisar, Punjab Province, British India (present day Haryana, India) |
| Death Place: | Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India |
| Constituency: | Hisar |
| Office: | Minister of Power, Government of Haryana |
| Term: | 2005–2005 |
| Party: | Indian National Congress |
| Spouse: | Savitri Jindal |
| Children: | 9 (incl. Sajjan Jindal, Naveen Jindal) |
| Known For: | JSW Steel, Jindal Steel and Power |
Om Prakash Jindal (7 August 1930 – 31 March 2005), also known as O. P. Jindal, was an Indian industrialist, and politician. He was the founder of the OP Jindal Group, a major steel and power conglomerate.
Jindal was born in the village of Nalwa in Hisar district of Haryana to a farmer family. He began his elementary education in his village but later continued it in the nearby town of Hansi.[1]
At 20, Jindal began his entrepreneurial journey by moving to Calcutta, where he worked as a trader dealing in steel pipes and tubes. He traded in iron and transported surplus pipes from Assam to sell in Calcutta, much of which came from metal left behind by the United States Army Air Forces' Tenth Air Force after World War II. By the age of 22 in 1952, he set up a factory in Liluah in Howrah to make pipe bends and sockets by using waste pipe products from Tata's Jamshedpur factory and Kalinga Tubes' Cuttack factory. In 1964, he expanded his ventures by founding Jindal India Limited, a full-fledged pipe-production company. Five years later, he established another factory in Calcutta.[2]
He went on to establish Jindal Steel and Power, JSW Group and Jindal Stainless Limited under the flagship of the OP Jindal Group, of which he was the founding chairman. In November 2004, Jindal was awarded the "Life Time Achievement Award" for his outstanding contribution to the Indian steel industry by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry. According to the latest Forbes List, he was ranked 13th amongst the richest Indians and 548th amongst the richest persons in the world.[3] [4]
Jindal was appointed Minister of Power in the Government of Haryana. He won the Hisar Legislative Assembly seat of Haryana three times consecutively. He was also a Member of the Committee on Food, Civil Supplies and Public Distribution from 1996 to 1997.
Jindal was elected to the Haryana Vidhan Sabha (the Haryana state assembly) in February 2005 and was the Minister of Power in the Government of Haryana at the time of his death. He was the Chairman of the N.C. Jindal Charitable Trust; Patron and Trustee of Agroha Vikas Trust and Agroha Medical College.
His four sons, Prithviraj Jindal, Sajjan Jindal, Ratan Jindal and Naveen Jindal now run the steel and power empire. His widow Savitri Jindal was Minister of State for Revenue, Disaster Management, Rehabilitation and Housing in Haryana state government,[5] while his son Naveen was a member of the Parliament of India. His granddaughter Sminu Jindal is managing director of Jindal SAW and founder of Svayam.
Jindal died in a helicopter crash on 31 March 2005.[6]