Nand Kishore Goenka: The patriarch whose grain-trade roots grew into Essel-Zee empire

Father of Essel Group Chairman Dr Subhash Chandra, Laxmi Goel, Jawahar Goel and Ashok Goel, passes away at 96, leaving behind a legacy of business grit, and a family that reshaped Indian media

by e4m Staff
Published: Jul 13, 2026 4:04 PM | 2 min read

Nand Kishore Goenka, a prominent figure in India's media and entertainment industry, passed away in Mumbai at the age of 96.
He was part of a Marwari business family and began his career in the family food-grain trade at 16, later expanding into dal milling and cotton ginning in Hisar, Haryana.
Goenka was the father of Subhash Chandra, founder of Zee TV and the Essel Group, and played a significant role in his son's early education, particularly in mathematics and English.
He was known for his community service and lifelong association with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a commitment reflected in his son's public life as well.

Nand Kishore Goenka, the man whose humble beginnings in the food-grain trade laid the foundation for one of India's largest media and entertainment conglomerates, passed away in Mumbai on Monday. He was 96.

Read: Dr Subhash Chandra's father Nand Kishore Goenka no more

Goenka was the second generation of a Marwari business family that traced its commercial roots to Okara, now in Pakistan's Punjab province, where his father, Jagannath Goenka, ran an agro-commodities trading establishment. Nand Kishore Goenka entered the family business at the age of 16. When that venture faltered, he moved with the family to Hisar in Haryana, where their firm, M/s Ramgopal Indraprasad, eventually grew to run a dal mill and cotton ginning factories.

It was in Adampur Mandi, Hisar district, that Nand Kishore and his wife, Tara Devi, had their eldest of children, Subhash Chandra, on 30 November 1950: the boy who would go on to found Zee TV and build the Essel Group into a media and entertainment powerhouse.

Family accounts describe him as a steady, formative presence in his son's early education. When Subhash Chandra went to secondary school at CAV Public School in Hisar in 1960, it was his father who personally taught him mathematics and English: lessons the elder Chandra later credited with keeping him "ahead of the curve" throughout his career. The family weathered serious financial setbacks in the late 1960s, including business losses and mounting debt, before rebuilding through Subhash Chandra's ventures in food-grain processing, packaging and eventually television broadcasting.

A life of service

Announcing the death on X, Dr Subhash Chandra described his father's 96 years as one "full of samaj seva, cow seva, and national service as RSS sayam sevak," reflecting Nand Kishore Goenka's lifelong association with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and community welfare work. It's a thread that also runs through his son's own public life and long-stated ties to the RSS.