Ruparelia has two sisters and one brother. He attended Bat Valley Primary School in Kampala, from P1 to P6, then Jinja Main Street Primary School in Jinja for P7 and Jinja Secondary School. In 1971, he joined Kololo Senior Secondary School.

He fled to the United Kingdom with his parents in 1972 at the age of 16, when the dictator Idi Amin expelled all Asians from Uganda.

He returned to Uganda in 1985, with US$25,000 earned from several casual jobs including working in supermarkets, factories, and butcheries. Ruparelia started selling beer and spirits imported from Kenya.

In 1989, beer importation was banned to encourage local brewing of alcohol and he realized he could not make beer. But since his customers, who were mainly foreigners, paid him in foreign currency, he started Crane Forex Bureau, the first in Uganda. With his profits, Ruparelia ventured into other businesses, including forming Crane Bank in 1995. Later, he organized his businesses under the umbrella of the Ruparelia Group.

In 2007, Sudhir Ruparelia was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in business, by the Uganda Pentecostal University, in recognition of his contribution to Uganda’s economic growth.

In February 2020, Sudhir Ruparelia was appointed as honorary Consul of the Republic of Nepal to Uganda, by Bidhya Devi Bhandari, the president of Nepal. On 17 March 2020, Ambassador Sudhir presented his credentials to Samuel Kutesa, Uganda’s foreign minister. Sudhir will report to the nearest substantive Nepalese embassy, in Cairo, Egypt.