When passion and purpose amalgamates, they raise the name – Chandrakant Babubhai Patel. CB, as he is commonly called, is a British-India businessman. Under CB Patel, Gujarat Samachar has taken a leap to success. handling wide operations of Gujarat Samachar, Asian Voice and their sister monikers. Featuring him in our especial coffee-table book was a must. His passion to achieve his purpose was so strong that no hurdle, no barrier could stop him in his path ahead.
CB, an Asian Voice columnist, has made to the headlines with many of his articles. This man, born in a rather insignificant Kheda district of Gujarat, absorbed the best values from his parents and from the Mother Nature. Be it the local temples, woods, farms, ponds or rivers, everything kept him connected to his roots. The big name of today’s date was also set to join the Indian Army, but couldn’t clear the exam, which turned out to be lucky later.
Highlighting the academics, CB Patel is a graduate from MS University of Vadodara and he moved to Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, right after that to make it to the civil service. While working, he also studied law, and decided to head to England after 6 years to he started working as financial consultant. To support himself and his family better, he started investing in commercial real-estate, buying many retail shops. Since 1972, he has been leading Asian Business Publications Ltd. (ABPL) Group, which is involved into groundbreaking publications and events, and visioned to inform, inspire, entertain, and enlighten the community.
While Mr. Patel is a rather outstanding business personality, we made acquaintance with him while featuring the gems of Gujarat in our coffee-table book Jewels of Gujarat: Leading Global Gujarati Personalities – Vol. I in 2015. It has been quite a long while from that point forward, yet at whatever point we revive the book, this magnetic man gazes out at us, luring us, rousing us!
In Patel’s words, if you want to see the change in the world, be it in you. His activities outside business are truly mentionable. CB defended the Hare Krishna Temple at Letchmore Heath and stood up against the rights of British passport holders of Indian origin in Hong Kong. He also raised campaigns for issues on race equality and diversity, nationality and immigration and cooperation of Gujaratis and Indians globally to aid Gujarat Samachar and Asian Voice.
His rundown of accomplishments are the gold medal, which he received by the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation for his backbreaking community services. He also had an energetic contribution to the largest umbrella body for British Hindus, the Hindu Forum of Britain (HFB). In 2008, he was elected for two years as the President of the National Congress of Gujarati Organisations (UK).
Order Jewels of Gujarat: Vol II to read and know more about CB Patel.