Building India's appetite for paints and yoga: Ashwin Dani

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₹67,841.77 crore, making him the 20th richest person in India. Dani has also held independent directorships on the boards of several leading listed Indian companies. Dani started his career in 1967 as a development chemist with Inmont Corp (an industrial coatings manufacturer now known as BASF) in Detroit, USA.

He joined Asian Paints as a senior executive in 1968 and moved through successive senior positions, such as director of R&D, works director, and whole-time director. Dani served on the board of the company in various capacities, including vice chairman and managing director, non-executive vice chairman, and non-executive chairman. In FY23, Asian Paints reported revenues of ₹29,953 crore with a net profit of ₹4,100.2 crore, making it the largest paint company in India.

He pioneered the idea of computerized color matching in the Indian industry. This concept is now widely used across industries in the field of paints, plastics, printing inks, and textiles. Asian Paints was the first paint company in India, and even in Asia, to implement this concept in 1975.

Dani was also instrumental in shifting the packaging of water-thinnable paints for decorative purposes from metal to plastic containers. In 1997, Dani led the setting up of the 50:50 joint venture between Asian Paints Ltd. and PPG Industries Inc., USA, for industrial coatings.

He was the founder director on the board of the first joint venture company with PPG Industries Inc, PPG Asian Paints Private Ltd., which is currently in its 26th year of operations. Dani was also the founder-promoter of Loctite India Private Limited (now Henkel Adhesive Technologies India Private Limited). Business interests aside, Dani was also a follower and practitioner of Iyengar