Why West Delhi produces so many entrepreneurs: CARS24 co-founder points to its Partition history

An entrepreneur has raised an unusual question about West Delhi after noticing how frequently he comes across business leaders, founders and other accomplished professionals from the Delhi region. The observation came from Gajendra Jangid, co-founder of used-car marketplace CARS24, who said the pattern appeared repeatedly among people in both his professional and personal circles.

In a post on X, Jangid listed several people associated with West Delhi and wondered whether the concentration reflected something about the area’s culture and history or was simply the result of his own bias in noticing the pattern.

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From CARS24 colleagues to famous names

Jangid said he first noticed the pattern within his own professional circle. In an X post, he pointed out that several people associated with CARS24, including the person leading GenAI, the head of product and the person who built the company’s NBFC, were from West Delhi. He added, with a more personal touch, that his gym trainer also hailed from the area.

Instead of assuming the pattern was meaningful, Jangid initially questioned whether his own surroundings were influencing what he noticed. He described the possibility as selection bias.

That doubt became harder for him to dismiss when he began spotting similar examples beyond work. He mentioned Virat Kohli, who grew up in Uttam Nagar, former cricketer Virender Sehwag, who grew up in Najafgarh, and singer Neha Kakkar, who is also from Uttam Nagar.

Jangid looks at West Delhi’s past

To make sense of the pattern, Jangid turned to the area’s demographics and history. He noted that around 25 lakh people live across 129 square kilometres in West Delhi.

He also focused on the experience of families who came to Delhi after Partition in 1947 and rebuilt their lives from the ground up. According to Jangid, neighbourhoods such as Punjabi Bagh, Rajouri Garden, Patel Nagar, Kirti Nagar and Tilak Nagar became associated with families who had migrated to the capital and established new homes and businesses.

He suggested that this background may have influenced how younger generations view work and enterprise.

When business becomes part of everyday life

Jangid’s argument was not simply about people choosing entrepreneurship as a profession. He said that in some West Delhi households, children may grow up surrounded by business discussions from an early age.

Describing that environment, he wrote that business becomes part of the “background noise of the home”, with conversations revolving around customers, credit, margins and unpaid dues. His point was that a child exposed to those realities repeatedly could become familiar with the basics of running a business long before formally entering one.

The idea offers one explanation for why entrepreneurship might feel less unfamiliar or intimidating to people growing up in such households.

Home ownership and the ability to take risks

Jangid also highlighted another factor he believed deserved more attention: home ownership.

He said many of the families he was referring to owned the houses they lived in. He did not describe them as wealthy, but argued that owning a home could provide a certain level of financial stability.

In his view, that safety net can matter when a young person is considering whether to leave a secure job and pursue a riskier path.

“And a lesser known thing. Most of those families own the house they live in. Not wealthy, but not fragile. That is exactly the floor a 25-year-old needs to say no to a safe job,” he wrote.

He then asked West Delhi residents to weigh in on what, if anything, makes the area particularly entrepreneurial, while acknowledging that he could simply be imagining a trend that is not actually there.

His final line brought some humour to the discussion: “Also, somebody please tell me what exactly they put in that chole bhature.”

What social media users think is driving the ambition

The post drew responses from users who said they had noticed similar characteristics among people from West Delhi, while offering explanations of their own.

One commenter described people from the area as outwardly “showy & flamboyant” but argued that they also tend to have a strong determination to achieve their goals. The user pointed to Honey Singh as another example and said the pattern extends beyond business to the arts.

Another person attributed the drive to families who arrived from elsewhere and created new lives in West Delhi. According to the commenter, that history fostered a desire to work hard, grow and build something meaningful.

A third user, who said he spent his teenage years in West Delhi, focused on the contrast between having money and not having it. He suggested that being exposed to visible wealth could push some young people to work harder and earn enough to change their circumstances.

Another commenter linked the area’s ambition to what they described as a generational desire to recover lost wealth and status. Referring to Punjabi families displaced from pre-Partition Punjab, the user said stories about ancestors who once owned substantial land but lost it in 1947 may have helped shape the ambition seen among some West Delhi families.

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