Santosh Kalra

Best competition one has in this world is with none other than but oneself. With this philosophy, Santosh Kalra ventured on the turf of entrepreneurship and proved that if you  are determined to learn and enrich yourself every single day, there is nothing which you cannot achieve. Having been educated in Statistics, he carved a niche in the Information Technology field to be fondly recognized as IT Guru and then went on to roll out venture after venture, some of which turned out to be great success.

Through his ventures, he contributed in bringing business and boosting the economy of his hometown Udaipur. He harnessed city’s historical & architectural value and generated employments for many families.

He created a network of talented and skilled people through training and mentorship in IT, Digital Marketing and Business Management. These people now successful in their respective professional and entrepreneurial spectrum.

Contrary to the perception that an entrepreneur is disinclined to share his skills and secrets fearing competition, Santosh has always been forthcoming in sharing the lessons with the wannabe entrepreneurs. He goes one step ahead and trains them to become successful in their respective areas.

In the last two decades, he has built a long list of esteemed trainees which included budding entrepreneurs, businessmen, engineers, CAs, doctors, government officials and many more. These have learnt from him diverse skills right from IT to business communication.

A passionate trainer with golden touch, he has mentored and hand-held many young start-ups and business ideas and taught hundreds of students of various universities which includes a little team of students from the esteemed IIM Udaipur.

He has significantly contributed in bringing Udaipur on the global map of royal and destination weddings. He feverishly got to the task of promoting Udaipur as a destination for lavish royal weddings. Today some of those trained by him, are very prestigious wedding companies, and contribute to 30% wedding business in Udaipur.

Born in Udaipur in August 1977, Santosh had his entire education in Udaipur until his PG in Statistics from Mohanlal Sukhadia University in 2000. Immediately after completing education, he was trained at Bangalore in 2001 to join the IT giant IBM as a Senior Faculty to teach programming. Next 2 years passed grooming himself as an IT wizard and a prolific trainer. In 2003, he decided to become an entrepreneur and started an IT consultancy and solution development firm. The beginning was hard because IT was in its infancy in Udaipur but soon he was fortunate to get prestigious clients like Secure, MLSU University and Rajasthan Govt as clients.

In 2004, he and brother Pradeep laid the foundation of Rukmani Group and under its umbrella, the first venture came up as Rukmani Arts to export high-end luxurious interior art made of stone, wood and silver. It was his fascination for the rich architectural heritage, which drew him to this venture, which to him was not just a business but a medium of apprising the world outside of the rich architectural legacy of India, legacy of carving life out of a stone piece. Starting with a very humble beginning, Rukmani Arts has successfully done smaller and larger projects in 23 countries in the last 16 years.

Though the export venture was progressing on the desired track, passion for IT was relentlessly nudging him to learn the latest tools and technology every single day. This passion found its realization soon when Santosh laid the foundation of Rukmani IT Gurukul. What began with the purpose of providing IT training and consultancy in the beginning, soon became a nucleus for training and mentoring for entrepreneurship, digital marketing and business management. For his passion and expertise and the respect for his knowledge and ease with which he passed on the knowledge to his trainees, students and learners gave him a popular identity as an IT Guru of Udaipur.

In a constant pursuit of exploring himself and to bring Investment, wealth and prosperity for Udaipur people, Santosh founded Rukmani Investment Services and ventured into tourism infrastructure and real estate promotion to further leverage the historic value of the city. The forts, lakes, palaces and the peaceful life and beauty of this city has been ranked top in the world again and again. He knew that Udaipur has the potential to attract the giants and who’s who of the globe to invest in hotels and resorts or build holiday homes here. But he knewUdaipur did not have the competent experts to shoulder the responsibility of providing professional & reliable property investment services. With this in mind, he began promoting tourism properties, super luxurious homes, rural tourism farms and holiday home properties to Indian and global tycoons. Credited to his endeavours now City of Lakes boasts investment from lots of celebrities, corporates and inspirational businessmen.

A progressive businessman, Santosh has earned the trust of a very enviable list of 1500 clients for Rukmani Group, some of the clients include who’s who of the country from business and bollywood like Isha Ambani, Ashok (Leyland) Hinduja and Bollywood actress Shraddha Kapoor, Padmini Kolhapure. He has also offered services to US Embassy, Taj Hotels, Hotel the Leela Palace, Club Mahindra and HRH Hotels. Apart from luxurious 5 star hotels, the Government of India and Indian Army, there are many banks and corporations. He has also been invited by one of the royal families of a middle east country and successfully did luxurious art and deco for their palatial project.

Vivekanand as his spiritual guru, Santosh truly championed his philosophy that rise and not stop until you get to your destination. With a firm belief in giving back to the society, more than what you were given, he founded a social venture Rukmani Foundation, under which, he has been consistently carrying out various philanthropic activities.

For his contribution to the society, he has been conferred various recognition and awards and has been mentioned in local and national print and electronic media. A true family person, he is being assisted by his brother Pradeep and wife Neelam in all his ventures and endeavours and passing on this family values of this togetherness to his son Lakshya and daughter Ananya. Even single day, his pursuit for finding the best version of himself is still on and is an inspiration for many.