New Delhi, May 17 -- In an era when corporate raiders were still cutting their teeth, Rama Prasad Goenka was rewriting the rules of Indian business with a flair for takeovers that earned him the title of India's 'takeover king.'

Through a whirlwind of mergers and acquisitions in the 1970s and '80s, he forged a billion-dollar conglomerate, RPG Enterprises, almost entirely through audacious inorganic growth, leaving an indelible mark on India's industrial landscape.

He was born into a lineage of business royalty. His father, Keshav Prasad Goenka, expanded the family business through shrewd acquisitions like those of Duncan Brothers and Octavius Steel, two British trading houses and was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1969, for his contributi...