About Sajjan Jindal
Sajjan Jindal, Chairman of JSW Group, was named Business Leader of the Year at The Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence in December 2025. In a conversation published in October 2025, Jindal stated that his ambition is to become the world’s number one steel producer. He said he does not plan to retire and told his son that he will continue running the business. Jindal also described Prime Minister Modi as a “big picture man” and said he chose to enter the automobile business because India should rely on its own energy sources rather than imported fuel.
In 2026, JSW Group held a groundbreaking ceremony for a 25 MTPA steel plant at its Vijayanagar Works, which Jindal described as the world’s largest steel plant at a single location. He said the target for completion is 24 months, referencing a Chinese record. In April 2026, JSW and JFE Steel inaugurated a 10 MTPA joint venture plant in Sambalpur, Odisha, which Jindal noted is JFE’s first integrated steel plant outside Japan. He said JSW is building four steel plants simultaneously in Odisha, which he called unprecedented globally. Jindal also commented on India’s energy policy, arguing the country should rely on solar, wind, coal, and nuclear power and criticized the difficulty of accessing government R&D funding.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Sajjan Jindal's recent appearances.
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✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
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Sajjan Jindal0:00
The state of Odisha, with a large amount of natural resources and a huge coastal area for different ports which are already there and more can be built, so Odisha has really taken advantage of this entire mineral resource that is there. When this law was changed, Odisha was the first state which did the auctioning of the mineral mines. No other state has, many states have even today not done the same thing what Odisha has done many years ago, and they are reaping the benefit. From a revenue of 10,000 crores a year, it is now over 40,000 crores a year that the mineral revenue is the state is getting. And JSW Steel and JSW Group has a role to play in this entire uplift of the situation. The fourth area where I feel Odisha is very attractive is tourism. You know, I am so proud to say today, standing here, that as a Hindu, I feel very, very emotionally charged that what Odisha has done, what the state of Odisha has done, what Naveen Babu has done, is to rejuvenate all the temples of this state. All the ancient temples of the state have been rejuvenated. If you go to Jagannath Temple at Puri, you will see what a fabulous environment that has been created after years of overcrowding of the temple. Naveen Babu has really taken it up. The Lingaraj Temple here and so many other temples, and the places like the Konark Temple. So this is what every state must replicate in their state to improve all our religious places, to make them of very high standard, so that because we feel really attached with all our religious places, and that's what has been done. You know, in the past, this was being done by the kings of Odisha. The temples were built by them, the kings. And all today, Naveen Babu is the king of Odisha, and that's why he is rejuvenating all these temples. So I really congratulate Naveen Babu. Another area which I feel the state of Odisha has really taken the lead in the country is in the area of sports. No other state in the country has taken as much initiative in sports as the state of Odisha has taken. I am not saying this because I am standing in front of Naveen Babu, honorable chief minister, or his officers, but I genuinely feel from my heart that sports has been a big thrust from the state of Odisha. Hockey, which had lost its glory, how is India's national sport? It had lost its glory. It is only because of the state of Odisha that we won the Olympic medal in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. That is because of the state of Odisha. You see the swimming program, the athletics program, the basketball program, the badminton program, the stadiums, Kalinga Stadium that has been created. I have seen and visited every place because I am very passionate about sports, coming from Haryana. I'm very passionate, but Odisha has taken a leap over even Haryana as far as entire sports is concerned. Haryana has focused more on boxing and wrestling, but Odisha has taken in all the other areas. And I can assure you that in the years to come, sports will be led by Odisha, and India will do much better in Olympics in the years to come.
