Oreva Group traces its origin to India’s leading clock brand

Family sources said that OR Patel, as Bhalodia is popularly known, never took business administration seriously. He, instead, remained focused on his job as a teacher at VC Technical High School in Morbi. “However, his eldest son Pravin took over the administration of clock business and took brand Ajanta to newer heights in the 1980s, beating Scientific Clocks,” said a source close to the family.

The Bhalodias also were generous with their funding for water conservation projects, including constructing village ponds, in Morbi. However, the family had their first split when OR Patel’s cousin Ukabhai’s son Manubhai launched the Samay brand of clocks. Later, a dispute arose among OR Patel’s sons—Pravin, Jaysukh and Ashok. The matter reached the court.

Eventually, Pravin formed Orpat Group (Orpat stands for Odhavji Ravji Patel) and started manufacturing electronic items such as digital calculators, digital clocks and so on.

While Ashok—the third among the entrepreneurial brothers—still manufactures products under the brand name Ajanta, the most famous among the three brothers is Jaysukh. A commerce graduate, he formed Oreva Group (O after his father Odhavji and Reva from his mother’s name). Following the split, Jaysukh set up a plant at Samakhiyali in Kutch for manufacturing CFL bulbs and gradually started making e-bikes powered by lead-acid batteries. Under the Oreva Group, Jaysukh also set up Ajanta Manufacturing Private Limited, the flagship firm of the group.

Jaysukh has been aggressively advocating for converting the Little Rann of Kutch into a fresh water reservoir (Rann Sarovar Project) by constructing a road bridge across the Surajbari creek into a dam. Last year, he had claimed that he had even met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in this connection.

“Jaysukh Patel has this knack of remaining in the news. He loves publicity,” said a source close to the family. Vasant, the eldest of the four brothers, was an employee of the Gujarat Industrial Investment Corporation, an undertaking of the state government.