Capt. Gopinath - Story of a Common Indian

Capt. Gorur Ramaswamy Iyengar Gopinath - Gopi was born in a Hassan Iyengar family of the remote village of Gorur, Karnataka. His father was a teachear at the local village school.

Study:

Gopi studied till class 7th at the local village school and then moved to Sainik School, Bijapur. He studied till 12th standard and then appeared for NDA entrance examination. He completed graduate from India’s most prestigious military establishments - The National Defense Academy (NDA, Pune) and the Indian Military Academy (IMA, Dehradun).

Army Service:

After graduting from IMA, he joined the Indian Army a commissioned officer. His first assignment was the 1971 war with Bangaladesh. Later he served across the country in Kashmir, Rajasthan, Assam and also in Bhutan. Gopi served Indian Army as commissioned officer for 8 years. Gopi took premature retirement in 1978 and with Rs 6,000/- in his pocket left for his village with plans to till the ancestral land.

As he says, “The army compelled me to push my physical and mental capabilities to the limit. This was also a very educating phase for me. I internalized discipline, team work and learnt a lot about the diverse regions and terrains of our vast country.”

Back to home:

Gopi returned to Gorur with the dream to become a fulltime farmer. At that time a dam was being built across the river Hemavathi, and land in his village was to be submerged completely. The Government allotted them a piece of barren land at Javagal as a compensation. Not 0one to be deterred, Captain hopped onto his motorcycle and made his way over dusty trails and rocky terrain toJavagal. He lived with snakes and scorpions and depended on donkeys to transport water and other essentials. Strong willed as he is, he weathered all storms and finally made the land come alive. In a few years he went on to become a successful Seri culturist in Karnataka.

He experimented with new ways of Silk farming which won him the “Rolex International Award” for Enterprise, for the project ‘Ecological Silk Farming to Improve Living Standards’. The same year, 1996, OUTLOOK magazine listed Captain as one of the 50 Indians who would rise from obscurity to fame in the decade. During this period he indeed dabbled with many business enterprises and received much success and acclaim.

First flight in the sky:

Sometime in 1995, the Indian Government started encouraging entrepreneurship as a reforms process. This inspired the Captain to identify the tremendous potential for Helicopter Charter Service in India. Along with an old Army friend he ‘Deccan Aviation’ – a dedicated, customer focused heli-charter Company in 1996.

Today, Deccan Aviation, headquartered in Bangalore has 11 helicopters and 2 small aircraft and operates out of nine major cities and locations, spanning the entire length and breadth of India. The company is India’s largest and most reputed private air charter company including Sri Lanka.

The Dream of flight for every indian: Air Deccan

One day while flying from Bangalore to Goa, an Idea of low cost airline came to Captain's mind. He saw clusters of TV and dish antenna's in big cities and noticed similar sights again and again in towns and village hamlets across India. It then hit him that India is no longer a country of a billion hungry people to be fed on subsidies rather a country of a billion consumers looking for world class services at affordable rates.Understanding the needs of this segment, he decided to start the first Low Cost, No Frills Airline of India.

Air Deccan - Launched on 25 August 2003, revolutionized air travel in India. With a vision to connect hitherto unconnected parts of India, Air Deccan today connects many remote parts of the country where no other airline had operated. The airline is operating close to 236 flights a day connecting 55 destinations. As part of its expansion plans, the airline has signed for 60 brand new Airbus and 32 ATRs. As a result a total of 80 aircraft will be acquired with one aircraft being inducted every month for the next 80 months. Not one to be effected by the instant success and recognition Capt Gopinath still remains the affable and easily approachable person that he always was, relentlessly pursuing his dream of enabling every Indian to Fly.

Series of Accolades:

In November, 2005 Karnataka Government honoured him with the prestigious “Rajotsava Award”.

In May 2006, The French government has bestowed "Chevalier de la legion d’Honneur" (Knight of the Legion of Honour) - the highest civilian award on Capt G.R Gopinath, Chairman, Air Deccan. The award is a recognition of Capt. Gopinath’s contribution to the development of Indo-French cooperation in the field of aviation.

In the same year he was also awarded the “Sir M Visvesvaraya Memorial Award” by the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce & Industry. Among other awards and honors he has also been conferred the “Laureate Award” in the Outstanding Global CEO category by Aviation Week , New York and the ” Editors Choice Award” by Indian Express for the biggest impact on tourism in India.

He currently lives in Bangalore with his wife and 2 daughters, Pallavi and Krithika.

Captain G R Gopinath, who pioneered low-cost air travel in India, has decided to contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls as an Independent candidate from Bangalore South Constituency.

Whom do you vote? Capt. Gopinath, who fought for India in the war or the politicians who fight with each other in the Assembly?