HARKIRAT SINGH RYAIT: G S Auto International's 4th gen scion has futuristic plans

You cannot tie him down to a desk to work from 9 to 5. He is ‘at home’ when he is elbow-deep in grease and oil while tuning the kinks out of a piece of machinery. Call him a technology junkie or an ideas man, Harkirat Singh Ryait brims full of not only ideas to explore, things to experiment with but also loves to pick brains of the experts in the field. As the 4th generation heir to the family business, Harkirat is all but ready to strike out in new automotive verticals. Sarada Vishnubhatla has the details.

- Sarada Vishnubhatla

A leader does not hesitate to get his hands dirty. He dives into issues himself. Unlike a boss. And Harkirat Singh Ryait is definitely the former. Inspired since childhood by his father, and their family legacy, combined with his affinity towards physics as a subject has led Harkirat to work with his hands – whether it is building things out of scrap, or tweaking machinery on the work floor. And, he thrives on challenges – especially those that get issued periodically by his father.

Imbibing Family Legacy

At 32, Harkirat – as the 4th generation upholder of the 82-year-old family business – feels the weight of the responsibility. G S Auto International was founded in 1938 in Ludhiana by Sardar Gurmukh Singh, then handled by Sardar Jagat Singh and later, the baton was passed on to Sardar Jasbir Singh.

“I may not have had the opportunity to learn the values directly from my great grandfather or grandfather but I remember fondly how in my younger years my father and I used to have endless discussions about the auto component industry, new possibilities, brainstorming ideas on how to take our business forward. He also would talk about our responsibility towards the educational institutions that are run under our management. My mother, I remember, was emphatic about not bringing business to the dinner table, so my father and I would take our discussions to our own space,” Harkirat shares.

Those endless discussions with his father were combined with building mechanical kits after studying manuals.