Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: A businessman to the core, Lord Swraj Paul never missed his annual stocktaking visits to Caparo Group’s slew of factories and other enterprises in India, Middle East and the US – a practice which he continued even in his nineties. And also, during the Indian leg of his packed itinerary, he made it a point to visit the Blitz India Media Group’s office, at Noida in Uttar Pradesh.
Lord Paul had a special association with Blitz India and he acted as a mentor of sort for the Group when its first edition was launched, about four years back. He was highly appreciative of the development journalism model which the weekly newspaper had adopted and he kept sharing his advice on improving the content and other elements of the paper.
Blitz India, too, responded in equal measure by covering various aspects of his motivational journey from time to time. In fact, the inaugural issue of Blitz India carried an elaborate interview with Lord Paul in which he talked about ties with India, his life journey, and the Indian economy.
Apart from that, Blitz India’s Europe edition brought out special supplements on major events organised by the Lord and his Group companies in the UK and other parts of the world. He was a part of the Blitz India family and that became more than apparent in his last visit to its office.
Lord Paul was perfectly at home with senior members of the Blitz India staff, who were there in full attendance to welcome him. Besides sharing vignettes of his decadeslong experience, he displayed abundant testimony of his profound intellect and razor-sharp memory.
When one of the senior editors was introduced to him as formerly from The Indian Express Group, Lord Paul became nostalgic, recalling his several interactions with the newspaper founder Ram Nath Goenka and talking gloriously about some major scoops done by The India Express.
That was Lord Swraj Paul, as Blitz India knew him, and we join the world in paying our heartfelt tributes to the legend, who rightly considered himself, “100% Indian and 100% British.”