Sanjiv Bajaj and Family

Bajaj Finserv did not offer credit. It changed the moment at which Indians decided they could afford something.

The no-cost EMI model that Bajaj Finserv popularised is not simply a financial product. It decoupled the purchase decision from the payment capacity, which is a different thing entirely. Sanjiv Bajaj built this from a small auto-financing arm into a consumer lending business with 73 million customers, operating on the same family name that had for decades been associated with the motorcycle rather than the loan used to buy it.

Where the manufacturing side of the Bajaj family runs on factory output and export volume, Bajaj Finserv runs on underwriting data and distribution reach. That the same family now anchors both one of the world's largest two-wheeler exporters and a dominant consumer finance business reflects how far individual members have diverged from the founding industry, and how productively. The two businesses serve the same Indian middle class from different ends of the same transaction.