FOUR GENERATIONS, ONE JOURNEY HARMANDEEP SINGH ANAND AND THE JAGSONS STORY: Taking the World’s Travel Brands to India’s Smaller Cities.
Jagsons Travels | Best Travel Agency in Nagpur & India
A family that began again in a Nagpur tin shed in 1947 now runs a travel company nearing its 50th year and a trade platform that reaches 75,000+ travel professionals across 32+ cities. Most family businesses are built to endure. Very few are built to open doors for others. In 1947, the Anand family left everything behind in what is now Pakistan and started again in Nagpur. For years, they lived in a modest tin shed. Today, the family runs Jagsons Travels, which is nearing its 50th year, and Global Panorama Showcase (GPS), a trade platform that reaches 75,000+ travel professionals across 32+ cities.
The years in between gave the family plenty of stories. They built Nagpur’s first three-star and five-star hotels. His grandfather survived a leopard attack with his bare hands. An uncle rode a 250cc Jawa from Nagpur to London and back. Harmandeep Singh Anand, Managing Director of Jagsons Travels and Co-founder of GPS, grew up on these stories.
In 2006, he and his brother Rishiraj saw that travel agents in Tier II and III cities could not reach the tourism boards, airlines, hotels and cruise lines that metro agents dealt with every day. They launched GPS in Nagpur in 2013 to change that. “You could start from Nagpur and reach anywhere in the world,” he says. Now, as Jagsons nears its 50th year, he looks ahead to the next fifty.
The Anand Family’s Long Road from Guliana to Nagpur
The Anand story begins in Guliana village, in Gujar Khan, now in Pakistan. When Partition came in 1947, the sons of Sardar Gurdit Singh Anand went separate ways. His elder son, Sardar Dr. Ratan Singh Anand, settled in Delhi. Sardar Jagat Singh Anand came to Nagpur, where his father-in-law, Sardar Attar Singh Sethi, ran a road-construction business. Jagat Singh began by helping him.
For years, the family lived in a modest tin shed while Jagat Singh rebuilt their life one piece of work at a time. In October 1947, his son Gulshanpal Singh Anand was born in Nagpur. Gulshanpal, now the group’s Chairman, would one day be known across the travel trade simply as “Mr GPS”. How he earned that name comes later in this story.
Jagtar Singh Sethi and fellow riders before the 1973 Nagpur–London–Nagpur ride on Jawa motorcycles
Money was short, but Jagat Singh and his wife, Sardarni Basant Kaur Anand, made one decision that shaped every generation after them: their children would be educated. Basant Kaur, a primary school teacher, made sure all six of them, daughters as much as sons, went to school, and all six became postgraduates. They were Jasbir Singh Anand, Devendra Singh Anand, Gulshanpal (who completed his M.A.), Jagtar Singh Sethi, Jatinder Kaur Sethi and Harpreet Kaur Chadha.
The business grew one opportunity at a time. Road construction came first, then a fuel station, then vehicle dealerships across Central India, including Jawa motorcycles. In 1978, the family opened Hotel Jagsons on Central Avenue, Nagpur’s first three-star hotel. Alongside it began a small car-rental service for hotel guests. That was Jagsons Travels, started with Gulshanpal’s wife, Jatinder Kaur Anand, as a founding partner.
The name came from Jagat & Sons, so the founder’s name has travelled with the company ever since. In 1992 came Hotel Jagsons Regency, Nagpur’s first five-star hotel. The group later spread into cinema, construction, auto parts, import-export, foreign exchange and liquor distilling. Businesses changed with the times, but the habit of evolving never did.
Two Stories the Family Still Tells
Every family has stories that get retold at the dinner table. The Anands have two, one about survival and one about adventure. The leopard. On 7 January 1958, Jagat Singh was travelling by bus from Amravati to Nagpur when it stopped near Kondhali. Around six in the evening, a leopard attacked. He fought it with his bare hands and overcame it. He survived, though badly wounded. His children were still young. Gulshanpal was ten.
“If he had not survived that day, there would have been no Jagsons, and none of what followed,” says Harmandeep. “Every generation since has grown up knowing that the family’s story almost ended before it began. It taught us that you face whatever comes, and you do not give up.”
The Jawa to London. Fifteen years later, the family’s appetite for the open road found its hero in Jagtar Singh Sethi, Gulshanpal’s younger brother, who had learnt to fix Jawas at the family dealership as a teenager. In 1973, soon after Harmandeep was born, he and his childhood friend Ulhas Kelkar rode a 250cc Jawa from Nagpur to London and back. The journey took six months.
“I grew up on both stories,” says Harmandeep. “One taught me courage; the other taught me that you could start from Nagpur and reach anywhere in the world. My uncle’s journey is the reason travel never felt like just a business to me.”
Harmandeep earned a B.Eng (Hons) in Polymer Engineering from the London School of Polymer Technology, University of North London (now London Metropolitan University), but the pull was towards travel. On a youth rail pass, he covered 26 European cities in 28 days. He turned down a job offer and a chance at a PhD and came home. The family had expected an engineer; he came back as a traveller.
He joined the family business in 1995, and his father, seeing his restlessness, steered him towards the travel wing. His younger brother, Rishiraj Singh Anand, joined soon after and is today Joint Managing Director. Their wives, Gurleen Kaur Anand and Gunjan Kaur Anand, are Directors across the group companies. Their younger sister, Ramneet Kaur Kohli, a gold medallist from Nagpur University, completes the third generation. Every member of this generation is a graduate, just as Basant Kaur would have wished.
The Fourth Generation
The story did not stop with them. Harmandeep and Gurleen have three children: Tanushka Kaur Chadha, Jasnoor Kaur Anand and Meharvaan Singh Anand. Rishiraj and Gunjan have two: Bhavishka Kaur Anand and Jivraj Singh Anand. All except Jivraj are involved in the family business. Bhavishka, who holds a B.Sc. in Applied Psychology from SVKM’s NMIMS, is now pursuing a Master’s in Psychology at O.P. Jindal Global University.
Tanushka joined her father in 2013 and helped reshape GPS into a fully digital, paperless trade platform, an industry first. She now leads Jastans, the luxury travel vertical. Jasnoor holds a Master of International Development Policy from Georgetown University. Meharvaan, who studied Hospitality and Events Management at the Swiss Hotel Management School, also holds WSET Level 3 in Wines and Level 2 in Spirits and Harvard certifications in finance, and is pursuing a degree in Computer Science from the University of London. He created Celebré, the luxury wedding vertical, and in 2026 joined as Chief Growth Officer (CGO) of GPS, with a mandate to prepare Jagsons and GPS for their next chapter through technology, automation and AI.
From Car Rentals to IATA
By 1986, Jagsons Travels, which had begun in 1978 as a car-rental service for hotel guests, was ticketing for Vayudoot and then Indian Airlines as one of Central India’s pioneer agencies. Harmandeep’s father, Gulshanpal, who was also President of the Vidarbha Air Travel Agents Association, built relationships across the fraternity. They still serve the company today.
After joining in 1995, Harmandeep completed his IATA training and took Jagsons into international travel. The agency secured IATA accreditation and built overseas representations. “When agents in Nagpur depended on Mumbai for everything, we invested in a dedicated leased line to Mumbai, and we were among the first agencies in India to issue an electronic ticket,” he says.
Jagsons also persuaded airlines such as Jet Airways, Damania, East West, NEPC and ModiLuft to start Nagpur flights by committing steady business. Over the years, Harmandeep has personally guided more than 5,000 students from Central India going abroad for higher education.
“Our vision has been consistent: relationships first, service always, and the ability to evolve with the traveller,” he says. “As we approach our 50th anniversary in 2028, we want to combine five decades of trust with technology, specialised verticals and a more global outlook.”
Everything in One Journey: Conferences to Weddings
Jagsons Travels offers comprehensive services, including airline ticketing, hotels, visas and documentation, customised domestic and international holidays, cruises, corporate travel, MICE, destination weddings, luxury and group travel, and hospitality services. As an IATA agency, it also runs its own B2B portal, through which partner agents book or self-issue tickets. What makes the offering complete is combining these in one journey, whether a corporate conference or a destination wedding. Having run hotels themselves, Harmandeep and his team understand the hospitality side of a journey as closely as the travel side.
Closing the Gap for Tier II and III Agents
“Global Panorama Showcase is the one we are proudest of,” says Harmandeep. He and Rishiraj conceived it in 2006. They saw that agents in Tier II and III cities had no access to the tourism boards, airlines, hotels and cruise lines that metro agents enjoyed. The gap was real, and GPS was built to close it.
The recession delayed them and the idea waited seven years before GPS launched in Nagpur in 2013 as “Showcase Jagsons”. Some 30 exhibitors had confirmed and 15 rooms were booked, but by opening day the company needed 45. The first edition outgrew its plan. The next year, it became the Global Panorama Showcase. The name was chosen deliberately: G, P and S are the initials of Harmandeep’s father, Gulshanpal Singh Anand, which is why the trade knows him as “Mr GPS”.
“We have never believed in growing alone,” says Harmandeep. When the company started GPS, people asked why it was creating opportunities for its competitors in Nagpur. Harmandeep and his team never saw them as rivals. They believe that if fellow agents grow, the region grows. Jagsons does not represent one family, one city or one agency; the team see themselves as part of India’s entire hospitality and travel fraternity. In this business, an agent’s access to the marketplace should not depend on the city they work from.
Milestones: 32+ Cities, 300+ Certifications and Awards Across Generations
GPS takes the marketplace to the agent. What began in Nagpur grew from one city to four by 2016 and to eight in 2019, and its Edwin knowledge programme even travelled to the UK. Attendance multiplied roughly fifty-fold in its first six years. Today GPS reaches 75,000+ travel professionals across 32+ cities, and many of its educational sessions on GST, TCS, taxation, destinations and technology are free for agents.
With Tanushka, who joined her father in 2013, GPS became a fully paperless, app-driven show, one of the first in the Indian travel trade. During the pandemic, they created GPS Connect, a virtual networking hub. In August 2024, GPS launched the GPS iConnect app. It keeps the travel industry connected all year: professionals exchange digital visiting cards, share updates, register for events and follow up on the meetings they make. GPS no longer waits for show days.
GPS also showcased Vidarbha, bringing the trade to Tadoba and Pench, and Dream Cruises chose GPS Nagpur to unveil its new ship. From its early years, a share of revenues was set aside for social causes. On the industry front, Harmandeep was Founding Chairman of the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) Nagpur Chapter and later served on TAAI’s Managing Committee and as Honorary Secretary General. Across four generations, the family has earned more than 300 travel certifications and awards from tourism boards, airlines and industry bodies, including Harmandeep’s “Face of Innovative Tourism” award at the 2016 West India Travel Awards.
People at the Centre
The Jagsons Travels team today brings together more than 300 years of combined travel experience. Here, personalisation begins with understanding the traveller: purpose, budget, pace and preferences. Seamlessness comes from managing every component together, with one point of contact. Reliability matters most when plans change, and that is when an experienced team that knows the booking is invaluable.
“For us, technology does not replace the travel advisor; it makes the advisor more capable,” says Harmandeep. Jagsons is now moving AI from an experimental tool to an operational layer across quotations, itineraries, traveller profiles, enquiries, documentation and knowledge management. His philosophy: “Use technology for transactions, use AI for intelligence, and keep people at the centre of relationships.” Technology handles the transactions. People handle the relationships.
From Booking Intermediary to Travel Partner
Jagsons Travels moved from arranging travel to understanding how people want to travel. The company expanded into customised holidays, MICE, cruises, luxury and weddings and backed Tier II and III India long before it became a trend.
“Our role has shifted from booking intermediary to complete travel and experience partner,” Harmandeep says. The booking is where the work begins, not where it ends. Those areas are now growth engines for Jagsons, and the next generation is leading them: Tanushka’s Jastans for luxury travel and Meharvaan’s Celebré for luxury weddings. Each needs deeper planning, stronger supplier relationships and personalisation, which play to the company’s strengths.
What Education and Relationships Built
Harmandeep’s leadership philosophy is short: “Build for the long term, protect relationships and keep evolving without losing your values.” It comes from the family. His grandparents taught him that education and hard work can rebuild anything. His father taught him that relationships are a business’s real capital. Education, hard work, and relationships: the same few ideas run through the family.
He and Rishiraj have worked side by side for three decades, and Gurleen and Gunjan have partnered to build the group. “Today our children bring new education and ideas from Switzerland, the United States and India, and our job is to give them room to lead,” says Harmandeep.
The Jagsons family story sums it up: the first generation built trust, the second strengthened the foundation, the third expanded the ecosystem, and the fourth is preparing it for the future.
Planning for Uncertainty as Much as Growth
Harmandeep sees plenty of opportunity in the Indian travel market. “India is one of the world’s most exciting travel markets, with a young population, rising incomes and fast-growing demand from Tier II and III cities,” he says. The risk is on the other side.
“Travel is the first industry hit by pandemics, conflict or visa and airline disruption, so companies must plan for uncertainty as much as growth. The challenge is to remain not only relevant but also resilient.” In travel, growth and uncertainty arrive together.
From an Event to a Year-Round Ecosystem
Jagsons Travels aims to expand intelligently through international partnerships, specialised verticals and automation-first technology. GPS began in Nagpur, and it returns there for its 15th edition on 22–23 January 2027. The goal is to turn it from an event into a yearround digital ecosystem connecting agents and suppliers across India and the globe. The aim is not a bigger show. It is a platform that runs all year.
A core team led by Harmandeep and Rishiraj drives it, together with CEO Raju Akolkar and Executive Directors holding various portfolios: Madhu Saliankar, Sobinder Singh Kohli, Rajshree Anand, Mohit Deshpande, Tanushka Kaur Chadha and Meharvaan Singh Anand. Meharvaan, as CGO, brings new ideas for evolving what GPS has built over these years.
Longevity as a Responsibility
“Jagsons has never been built around a single booking,” says Harmandeep. “It has been built around relationships that last for years, often across generations.” “My grandfather arrived in Nagpur with nothing and survived a leopard with his bare hands; my uncle rode a Jawa to London; my father built a name the whole fraternity trusts. As we approach 50 years, we see longevity not as an achievement but as a responsibility to keep evolving.” “The tools of travel have changed from paper tickets to AI. The principle has not: travel remains a business of people, relationships and trust.”
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