Ballarpur Industries: License-Raj's Last Party Ended in NCLT

The Mint article noted that the group diversified into numerous unrelated businesses, consuming capital without building scale or focus. In the protected world of license-raj, where competition was limited, such a strategy worked. Liberalization changed that equation, it said. Rather than modernizing its legacy businesses for global competition, the group appeared to seek refuge in protectionism. BILT, once a strong company, became vulnerable. Other businesses struggled with debt and technological obsolescence.

Friction over cross-holdings among family branches caused widespread strategic paralysis, the article said. In 1985, Thapar was arrested under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act and briefly lodged in Tihar Jail. Political connections, once a valuable asset, offered little protection. In 1997, with the group valued above ₹3,500 crore, Thapar split it into three parts for his nephews. Gautam received the flagship BILT and Crompton Greaves holdings through a will that partly reversed the earlier division. The group's momentum had already stalled.

The Amrita Sher-Gil Marg bungalow became the most visible marker of the decline after Thapar's death in 2007. Gautam Thapar's Avantha Realty sold the property to Kapoor's wife. Investigators alleged the price was substantially below market value. They claimed the transaction was a quid pro quo for unpaid Yes Bank loans. Gautam Thapar was arrested in August 2021.

BILT's collapse follows a pattern that played out across dozens of Indian business houses after liberalization. A license-raj conglomerate diversified without focus and relied on relationships rather than operational efficiency. Adaptation to competition was elusive. The companies that survived concentrated capital and hired professional management. The ones that did not ended up in the NCLT.

Legacy market share did not protect BILT when the regulatory environment shifted. The Thapar group's paper business had decades of dominance. Scale and capital discipline mattered more than connections. The bungalow where Thapar once hosted diplomats and politicians over cards and whisky was sold at a price investigators said was below market value. That sale became the subject of enforcement scrutiny. Gautam Thapar was arrested in August 2021.