The steel magnate made his fortune by founding the Caparo Group of companies after starting with his first business, Natural Gas Tubes, in Birmingham.

Over the years he has donated generously to good causes, including £1 million to Wolverhampton University, where he has been Chancellor since 1998. It was the largest in the university’s history.

Appointed to the House of Lords in 1996 and the Privy Council in 2009, he has played a large part in public life including preparations for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Lord Paul first came to the UK in 1966 seeking medical treatment for his young daughter Ambika who had leukaemia. After her death at the age of four he started his first company, settling in the Midlands.

Later he set up the Ambika Paul Foundation in her memory to promote the well-being of children around the world through education, culture and health, a charity which is still running today. He donated £1 million to London Zoo, one of her favourite places.

Born Swraj Paul in Jahlandhar, India, he was educated at Punjab University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA where he studied engineering. His father ran a company making steel buckets.

In 1968 he set up the Caparo Group, growing it to become one of the UK’s largest steel conversion and distribution businesses, manufacturing an extensive range of steel products. Today it operates globally from more than 40 sites across the world.

At the awards ceremony the billionaire said: “I am deeply honoured by the Award you have given me and I thank you profoundly for doing so. Having been all my life in business, it is particularly gratifying to receive this recognition.

“I first began business in the Midlands nearly 50 years ago. It was then a very different place but there was a feature that I found particularly encouraging – it was a region of opportunity.

“In the decades since then, we have had good times and difficult times. But that attribute remains an essential part of our commercial and social DNA and it is what sustains our economic environment, and we must nourish it.

“Younger members of our business fraternity sometimes tell me that opportunity is not as available as it used to be. To them I say that opportunity is always there...but you have to seek it out. The skills of entrepreneurship and innovation, adaptability and engagement, change with the times but if you persist with commitment you will find opportunities.”

Harj Sandher, who organised the 13th Midlands Business Awards, said: “It was a great pleasure to present the Lifetime Contribution to the Midlands Business Award to Lord Paul, who has contributed so much to the region’s economy and given so much back over so many years.”

Earlier this year Wolverhampton University re-named the main building on its Telford Innovation Campus the Angad Paul Building in memory of Lord Paul’s son Angad who sadly died in 2015.