Vikram Singh Mehta (IndiGo Chairman)

Some Lesser Known Facts About Vikram Singh Mehta

• Vikram Singh Mehta was born into a royal family. His ancestors served as rulers of Mewar, Rajasthan.

• His father, Jagat Singh Mehta, served as India’s Foreign Secretary, and his grandfather, Mohan Singh Mehta, was a noted educationist and diplomat. His grandfather also served as India’s High Commissioner to Pakistan (1951) and was a member of the Constituent Assembly of India in 1947.

• Vikram’s only sister, Rani Vijay, was married to Raja of Mahmudabad Amir Mohammad Khan of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.

• At Oxford, Mehta was a classmate and friend of Imran Khan and Benazir Bhutto. All of them had PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) as their common subject.

• He returned to India to sit for the civil services examination in India.

• In 1978, Mehta was selected for the Indian Administrative Service. He joined the service, but after two years, he quit the civil services due to incompatibility of temperament.

• In 1980, he went to study at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, USA, and secured a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy (MALD).

• He began his corporate career in 1980 as a Senior Economist at Phillips Petroleum in London.

• In 1984, he returned to India and joined India Ltd. as an Advisor for Strategic Planning, marking his entry into the Indian energy sector.

• In 1988, Mehta accepted an offer from Royal Dutch Shell, London, to join its Middle East operations. His job profile at Shell was mainly about high-profile networking.

• From 1991 to 1994, he was appointed as managing director of Shell Markets and Chemicals, Egypt.

• In 1994, he was transferred by Shell to India, where his networking skills could be utilised more effectively. He was appointed as the Chairman of Shell Group of Companies in

• He worked with Shell India for approximately 24 years and retired from this position in October 2012.

• After retiring from Shell India, Mehta became the Executive Chairman of Brookings India in 2013. He was also appointed as a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he focused on public policy research.

• Vikram Singh Mehat has held independent directorships at many major companies, including Larsen and Toubro Limited, Mahindra and Mahindra Limited, Jet Airways, Colgate Palmolive India Limited, Apollo Tyres Limited, HT Media Limited, and Jubilant FoodWorks Limited.

• He served on the Board of the Thomson Reuters Founders Share Company, as well as the Overseers of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and the Global Advisory Board of Macro Advisory Partners.

• In 2018, due to time constraints and other commitments, Vikram Mehta resigned from the position of independent director of the board of Jet Airways because he was involved in multiple high-profile roles.

• In 2020, Vikram was appointed as the Chairman and Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP), where his work included involvement in policy research and analysis.

• Vikram Singh Mehta is the editor of two books titled Anchoring Change: 75 Years of Grassroots Interventions That Made a Difference (2021) and The Next Stop: Natural Gas and India’s Journey towards a Clean Energy Future (2022). Both books were published by Harper Collins.

• Mehta has been a member of the board of InterGlobe Aviation Ltd (IndiGo) since May 2022.

• In May 2025, IndiGo appointed Vikram Singh Mehta as chairman.

• Vikram Singh Mehta’s wife, Tasneem Zakaria Mehta, is an Indian art historian, writer, curator, and museum director. She is the Managing Trustee and Director of the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Mumbai. Tasneem is the daughter of the late Rafiq Zakaria, a prominent Indian politician and Islamic scholar, and the cousin of Arif Zakaria, a well-known Indian actor.

• Many renowned universities have invited Vikram Singh Mehta as a guest lecturer.

• He also writes articles related to business for various newspapers.

• Vikram Singh Mehta loves to play tennis and golf.

• In an interview, Vikram Mehta revealed that he is an avid reader and maintains three libraries in Delhi, Mumbai and Udaipur. He loves to read books related to economics, political history, religion, and philosophy.