Avantha Group’s Founder and Chairman Gautam Thapar received an Honorary Fellowship of King’s College London (Hon FKC) in recognition of his ‘exceptional achievements in the fields of industry and philanthropy.’

Founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, King's College London is one of England’s oldest and most prestigious universities: a multi-faculty research-led institution based in the heart of London. The proposal to establish a fellowship of King’s was first considered by the Council of King’s in 1847. Nobel Prize-winners Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Professor Maurice Wilkins, and composer Sir Harrison Birtwistle among others have set up a precedent for the range of distinctions in fellowship.

Gautam Thapar is the Founder and Chairman of Avantha Group, one of India’s leading business conglomerates. His extensive philanthropic record reflects his sense of duty and service, and includes his endowment of the Avantha Chair in the King’s India Institute.

On congratulating  Thapar, Professor Sunil Khilnani, Avantha Chair and Director of King’s India Institute, said: ‘Gautam Thapar is exceptional among corporate leaders in embodying a vision that is at once national and global: as leader of the Avantha Group, and in his various philanthropic activities in India and abroad, he has shown commitment to building long term and globally sustainable conditions for India’s progress and development.

‘It’s an honour for King’s College London and for King’s India Institute to be associated with him: we too share his vision of contributing to India’s overall advance in a irreversibly globalized world.

‘In awarding Gautam Thapar an Honorary Fellowship, King’s College London welcomes him into the community of its most distinguished members: a Fellowship that includes Nobel prize winners as well as pioneers in the sciences, arts and business. We look forward to his continuing engagement with King’s, and I am personally delighted that he is now Fellow of King’s’.