Ritesh Agarwal, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Softbank backed-OYO, recently met Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his mother to invite him to his wedding. The 29-year-old entrepreneur is set to tie the knot in March this year.
Mr Agarwal took to Instagram to share photos of himself, his mother and his fiance at the prime minister's residence. In one of the pictures, the couple can also be seen touching the PM's feet to seek his blessings for a ''new beginning.'' In another, Mr Agarwal can be seen draping a shawl around the Prime Minister's shoulders.
Sharing the pictures he wrote, ''With the blessings of Pradhan Mantri @narendramodi ji, we are all set for a new beginning. Words cannot express the warmth with which he received us. My mother, who is inspired by his vision for women empowerment & Geet, from Express(Uttar) Pradesh, were heartened to meet him.
Thank you for sparing your valuable time & for your good wishes. Committed to enabling the growth of tourism and entrepreneurship in India across Rayagada, Gir, Ladakh, Rameswaram, Meghalaya and more!''
Check out the images here:
Notably, Mr Agarwal's wedding will be followed by a reception at a 5-star hotel in the national capital Delhi.
The entrepreneur, now one of the country's youngest billionaires, founded OYO when he was just 19 years old. Oyo Rooms, which specialises in no-frills accommodation, was formed in 2013.
Oyo teams up with owners of budget hotels to help connect them with tourists looking for cheap but clean accommodation that meets certain hygiene standards. OYO now operates in over 800 cities in 80 countries and is considered one of the fastest-growing hotel chains in the world.
In an interview with Humans of Bombay in 2020, Mr Agarwal spoke about his journey and said, "I was a small-town boy with big dreams. I grew up in Rayagada in Odisha, in a middle-class family. But I always had the entrepreneurial bug."
