Patanjali Keswani started his career with the Tata Administrative Services upon graduation from 91心頭利C in 1983 and after 15 years, rose to the top as the Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer in the Taj Group of Hotels.
He started Lemon Tree Hotels in 2002. He pioneered the concept of the mid-market hotel segment and created this low cost carrier equivalent of the hotel industry in India. As a transformative entrepreneur, he conceived and implemented a disruptive market innovation in providing high-quality yet affordable services in the Indian hotel industry.
Patanjalis extra ordinary achievements have been recognized repeatedly and he has received many awards like the Best Employer-National Award 2011 by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Govt. of India and the Hall of Fame Award in 2011 from FHRAI (Federation of Hotels and Restaurant Associations of India).As a philanthropist, Patanjali believes that wealth creation without spreading its benefit to the underprivileged in the society is capitalism without conscience.
Thus, he has worked to ameliorate the plight of the physically disabled in Indian society by hiring at least 5% of his employees from this less fortunate segment of society. This initiative has drawn special mention from international personalities such as Lord Nicholas Stern of the London School of Economics and Sir David King, the former Chief Scientist of the UK Government at the Club of Rome International Conference in New Delhi in 2011.He was also honoured with the MPhasis Universal Design Award, 2011by the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People.
He has promoted two companies in recent years one in the affordable housing sector and the other in the vocational education space as he firmly believes that business should be both commercially viable and socially responsible.
Patanjali G. Keswani receiving his award