Dr. Vijay Mallya (Kannada/Konkani born 18 December 1955) is an Indian drinks and aviation billionaire and former Rajya Sabha MP. The son of industrialist Vittal Mallya, he is the Chairman of the United Breweries Group and Kingfisher Airlines, which draws its name from United Breweries Group’s flagship beer brand, Kingfisher.

Vijay Mallya has an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion. He receives substantial press coverage that focuses on his lavish parties and his hotels, automobiles, Formula One team Force India, Indian Premier League Cricket team Royal Challengers Bangalore and his yacht.

 Mallya is originally from the town of Bantwal (near Mangalore) in Karnataka. He was educated at La Martiniere Boys’ College, Kolkata and completed his degree from St. Xavier’s College, Calcutta under Calcutta University. He was conferred a Doctorate in Philosophy in Business Administration by the University of Southern California USC.

 Mallya is married twice. His first wife was Sameera and they have a son together, named Sidhartha Vijay Mallya. Later on, he married Rekha and has two daughters Leana Mallya, Tanya Mallya .

 Business

Mallya took over as Chairman of the United Breweries Group in 1984. Since then, the group has grown into a multi-national conglomerate of over sixty companies with an annual turnover which has increased by 639% to US$11.2 billion in 1998-1999 . The focal business areas of the group encompass alcoholic beverages, life sciences, engineering, agriculture, chemicals, information technology, aviation and leisure. He owned McDowell Crest.

 In May 2007, United Breweries Group announced the all-cash acquisition of scotch whisky maker Whyte & Mackay for £595 million (approximately Rs 6000 crore). In 2005 he took over Millennium Breweries Ltd (formerly known as Inertia Industries Ltd), which owned the two premium beer brands named Sandpiper and Zingaro.

 Airlines

A hoarding of Kingfisher Airlines with Vijay Mallya’s signatureIn 2005, Vijay Mallya established Kingfisher Airlines. At present, the airline connects 32 cities. Kingfisher Airlines obtained a 26% stake in Air Deccan, a low cost Indian airline which Mallya later acquired fully and integrated into his Kingfisher fleet, rebranding it as Kingfisher Red. Vijay Mallya and his Jet Airways counterpart Naresh Goyal announced an alliance after a marathon meeting on 13 October 2008 at Mumbai, India.

 Mallya Sports Life

Vitantonio Liuzzi driving for Mallya’s Formula One team, Force India, at the 2009 Japanese Grand Prix.In 2007, Mallya and the Mol family from The Netherlands bought the Spyker F1 team for 88 million euros.The team changed its name to Force India F1 from the 2008 Season. Team’s car VJM-01 was named after its owners Vijay Mallya, Jan Mol and Michiel Mol.

 Mallya also represents India in the FIA World Motor Sport Council, where he has a seat from 2009 to 2013.

 Mallya’s United Breweries sponsors the East Bengal and Mohun Bagan football clubs in Kolkata. He also was part of the consortium that acquired Queens Park Rangers FC, as part of the Bernie Ecclestone, Flavio Briatore and Lakshmi Mittal.

 Mallya’s flagship firm UB Group owns the Royal Challengers Bangalore team in the Indian Premier League. He won this team in an auction by paying US$111.6 million for the team. The Royal Challengers Bangalore team includes players like Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Kevin Pietersen, Jacques Kallis, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Robin Uthappa, Mark Boucher, Sunil Joshi, Misbah-ul-Haq, Ross Taylor and Dale Steyn.

 Mallya also owns the company, United Racing and Bloodstock Breeders (URBB) which has interests in horse racing. URBB runs the Kunigal stud farm, under lease from the Government of Karnataka.

  Political career

Mallya entered politics in 2000 and replaced Subramanian Swamy as the president of the Janata Party, a breakaway faction of the original Janata Dal party. His party contested almost all of the 224 seats during the Karnataka State legislative election. He campaigned vigorously through the media, but his party failed to make any impact and did not win a single seat. Following the party’s failure in the elections, it has been largely ignored by the media.

 Auction purchases

Vijay Mallya is noted for his successful bidding in auction of items that are considered of great cultural value to India.[citation needed] In 2004, he placed the winning bid of £175,000 for the sword of Tipu Sultan at an auction in London, and brought it back to India.[11] In March 2009, Mallya successfully bid for the belongings of Mahatma Gandhi at US$1.8 million, in a New York auction that initially caused an uproar in India and its government tried and failed to prevent it from going under the hammer.

 Achievements

UB city as seen from St. Joseph’s school groundEstablishment of Mallya Hospital in Bangalore. The hospital is located in Vittal Mallya Road, named after his father.