India's Visionary Leaders

Rao Bahadur Ranchhodlal Chhotalal (1823-1898)

Rao Bahadur Ranchhodlal Chottalal is regarded as the pioneer of textile industry in Ahmedabad, Gujarat and as a key personality contirbuting to the development of infrastructure in Ahmedabad. He is credited with the establishment of the 'Ahmedabad Cotton Spinning and Weaving Co.' in the year 1861. During his association in Ahmedabad Municipality, he worked tremendously on improving the supply of drinking water along with the introduction og underground drianage systems in colonial India. After the succes of this mill, Ranchhodlal established two more mills, in 1872 and 1877 respectively, however, the former got destroyed by fire. The efforts of Ranchhodlal encouraged establishment of many more mills, including the Becherdas Mills, started by Mr. Becherdas Ambaidas in 1867. Around 62 mills had been set-up in Ahmedabad in a period of 50 years after the development of first mill in 1861 and this gave Ahmedabad the designation of 'Manchester of India'.

He also contributed to the social development of Ahmedabad by starting high school called 'R C High School' in 1846 and the 'Victoria Jubilee Hospital' in 1865, which was the first women's hospital in Ahmedabad. Under his guidance, an endowment fund, known as the 'Ranchhodlal Chhotalal C.I.E Research Award Endowment' was initiated to help students who could not afford to complete their education. The title of 'Rai Bahadur' was conferred on him for the instrumental work done by Chhotalal and he was also made a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire.

Ardeshir Godrej (1868-1936)

Who would have thought that an article on the rising burglary cases would anticipate the idea of making high-security locks revolutionizing the lock-manufacturing industry in India? At 29, Ardeshir Burjorji Godrej (Ardeshir Godrej) started a small factory manufacturing locks in Mumbai. Soon after, in 1901, experiments were carried out with the safes, which came to the market in 1902. He was further accompanied in his business journey by his younger brother Pirojsha Burjorji Godrej from 1906 and were further addressed as the Godrej Brothers, who together brought the Godrej Soaps Ltd. in 1918, and introduced the concept of vegetable oil soap in India. After a few years, Ardeshir Godrej handed over the reins of the Godrej company to his brother Pirojsha, turning his interest toward farming. He finally settled down in Nasik and also set up a 'Godrej farm' there.

T.V. Sundaram Iyengar (1877-1955)

Born in 1877, T.V. Sundaram Iyengar is the pioneer of the automobile industry in south India. He formed the T.V. Sundaram Iyengar & Sons in 1911 by initially launching a passenger bus service between Madurai and Devakottai. Before entering into the industrial ventures, TV Sundaram Iyengar began his career as a lawyer and then eventually worked for Indian railways and also in a bank. In 1923, TV Sundaram Iyengar enrolled as a sub-dealer for Chevrolet, and by 1929, the company acquired General Motors dealership for Madurai, Tirunelveli, Ramnad, and Pudukottai regions. During the Second World War, with the scarcity of petrol, TV Sundaram with the help of his son TS Krishna developed a gas plant that utilized charcoal gas to power the vehicles, thereby reducing the dependency on petrol. Also, to curtail the problem of rubber shortage during the years of war, TV Sundaram started a factory for rubber retreading and then established Madras Auto Service Ltd. and Sundaram Motors. Today, TVS Group is regarded as the largest automobile distribution company in India divulged in the fields such as automotive component manufacturing, automotive dealership, electronics, finance, etc.

Walchand Hirachand Doshi (1882-1953)

Regarded as the 'Creative Genius' by the late President of India, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, Seth Walchand Hirachand Doshi is remembered as a visionary who laid down the foundation of industrialization in India. He is credited for his immense contributions to establishing ventures in the fields of civil engineering, aircraft manufacturing, maritime shipping, and automobile manufacturing, which were then nationalized by the government. He never had an interest in carrying out the traditional family business of the cotton trade and started his career as a railway contractor. He founded the Scindia Steam Navigation Company, establishing the first national shipping industry of India, which sailed its first ship SS Loyalty from Mumbai to London on April 5, 1919. Analyzing the role of ship-building in the infrastructure development of India, he took the initiative of building a shipyard in Vishakhapatnam in 1948. This shipyard was then nationalized by the government of India and was renamed Hindustan Shipyard Limited. Another major contribution by Seth Walchand was the setting-up of India's first aircraft manufacturing facility 'Hindustan Aircraft Limited', renamed HAL in the later period. Follower of nationalist leaders like Dadabhai Navroji, Justice M.G. Ranade, Rao Bahadur G.V. Joshi, and R.C. Dutt, Walchand always dreamt of shaping the future of India and gave all the efforts and dedication to bringing those dreams to reality.

Jamnalal Bajaj (1884-1942)

Termed the 'Merchant Prince' by Mahatma Gandhi, Jamnalal Bajaj was an ardent patriot and a budding entrepreneur, who contributed both to the freedom movement and industrial development of India. Born to a Marwari family in Rajasthan in 1889, he was adopted by a business family in Wardha, and inherited the responsibilities and the reins of the family business at the age of 17, transforming it into one of the largest conglomerates of India, known as the 'Bajaj Group'. He was a staunch follower of the principles of Mahatma Gandhi and was an active part of the freedom struggle movements like the Non-Cooperation Movement (1920-22), Nagpur Jhanda (Flag) Satyagraha (1923), Boycott of Simon Commission (1928), Dandi March (1930), among other events. As a social reformer, he opened the doors of his family-owned temple to the Harijans (untouchables) and also established Mahila Ashram at Wardha & Mahila Shiksha Sadan in Ajmer encouraging women empowerment. Many institutions were set up in the legacy of Jamnalal Bajaj, including the prestigious Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies.

Ghanshyam Das Birla (1894-1983)

G.D. Birla was an outstanding architect of India's industrial growth. The founding father of the Birla empire, he also established the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). He migrated to Calcutta at the age of 16 and started a career as a jute broker along with his brothers. It wasn't long before his hard work paid rich dividends and in 1919 he set up Birla Brothers Limited and thereafter a mill in Gwalior. He established a cotton mill in Sabzi Mandi, Delhi followed by Keshoram Cotton Mills and Birla Jute Mills around 1920. By 1939, Birla Brothers were India's 13th largest managing-agency firm. The expansion was almost an unstoppable phenomenon with Ghanshyam Das and in the decade of the 1930s, he set up Sugar and Paper mills, and in the 1940s ventured into the automobiles, insurance, and air service industries. Post-Independence, he set up an aluminum plant 'Hindalco' near Mirzapur, and the coming decades continued to see the Birla Brothers among the top industrial houses of India.

Mohan Singh Oberoi (1898-2002)

Widely regarded as the father of the 20th-century Indian hospitality industry, Mohan Singh Oberoi (M.S. Oberoi), was the vision behind The Oberoi Group, the country's first and best-known hospitality companies, with 35 luxury hotels in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Egypt, Australia, and Hungary. M.S. Oberoi started his career in 1922 in Hotel Cecil, Shimla, as a clerk. From a diligent worker, he soon acquired his first hotel. In 1934, he acquired the Clark's Hotel from his mentor and soon created a trajectory of acquisitions in Calcutta, Delhi Shimla, Lahore, Murree, Rawalpindi, and Peshawar that established him as the first Indian to run the largest and finest hotel chain. In 1959, The Oberoi Group became the first group to start flight catering operations in India. In 1965, M.S. Oberoi opened the first modern, five-star international hotel in the country, the Oberoi International, in Delhi. His self-professed strident commitment to quality, exemplar sense of aesthetics, and personal experience of the best in the world led 13 Oberoi hotels to become members of the 'Leading Hotels of the World.' It was his foresight that led to the establishment of the Oberoi School of Hotel Management in 1966, the first such institution in the country to be recognized by the International Hotel Association in Paris. A man of remarkable achievements, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha twice in 1962 and 1972 and to the Lok Sabha in 1968. He was a recipient of numerous prestigious national and international accolades. The most prestigious of them is the admission to the 'Hall of Fame' by the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), 'Man of the World' by the International Hotel Association (IHA), New York, 'Order of the Republic - First Class' conferred by the President of Egypt, Honorary Doctorate of Business Administration by the International Management Centre, Buckingham, UK, the PHDCCI 'Millennium' award in 2000 and the 'Padma Bhushan' award in 2001.

Shanthanu Kirloskar (1903-1994)

Shanthanu Laxmanrao Kirloskar (S.L. Kirloskar for short), an ingenious businessman and a man of unbending principles, successfully established a golden age for the Indian engineering industry. His father Laxmanrao Kislorkar was the founder of the Kirloskar Group, a venture that started off with a small bicycle business and emerged as one of India's flourishing business enterprises. S.L. Kirloskar completed his Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from MIT, Massachusetts in the US, being among the first batch of Indians to graduate from the reputed institute. He skilfully steered the company from oil engines and electric motors to machine tools and tractors to hotels and consultancy services. Soon, the humble company that began in 1988 in Belgaum as a trading firm turned into a saga of 6,300 crores. The Kirloskar empire today comprises eight group companies and is considered the largest engineering conglomerate in the country. A businessman of keen tactical ability and perspicacious understanding of business dynamics, S.L. Kirloskar drove the Group into export. He is also credited with developing the manufacture of diesel engines indigenously as an import substitute in post-independence India.

Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata (1904-1993)

Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata (JRD Tata) was a pioneer aviator, one of the frontline businessmen of India, and a visionary far ahead of his time. In 1925, J.R.D Tata joined Tata and Sons and in 1938 was elected as Chairman. For over half a century, he guided the Group to greater heights and newer ventures encompassing software, steel, power generation, engineering, and hotels, among others. With immense interest in flying, he became India's first pilot and also formed the Tata Aviation Service in 1932. In 1948, he launched Air Indian International as India's first international airline and was appointed its Chairman by the Indian Government. His success in aviation also earned him the title of Honorary Air Commodore of India, the Tony Jannus Award in 1979, and the prestigious Guggenheim Medal for aviation in 1988. Alongside building an empire, he advocated and worked towards building a holistic approach encompassing social change, crusading for critical issues such as women's education and the spread of literacy. He pioneered the establishment of Asia's first cancer hospital, 'the Tata Memorial Center for Cancer Research and Treatment, in Bombay in 1941. He also founded the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS, 1936), the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR, 1945), and the National Center for Performing Arts (NCPA). A peerless achiever, J.R.D Tata was a recipient of the Bharat Ratna in 1992. He was also awarded the Legion of d'honneur by the French Government and the United Nations in 1954.

Homi Jehangir Bhabha (1909-1966)

Homi Jehangir Bhabha, popularly known as Homi Bhabha, is vastly recognized and most reverentially remembered as the chief architect of India's nuclear program. He was the founder of the Indian Atomic Energy Programme and was responsible for the creation of two premier institutions, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. Homi Bhabha was also the first chairman of India's Atomic Energy Commission. After his return to India, Homi Bhabha chose to work at the Indian Institute of Science under the mentorship of C.V. Raman, who was at the time Head of the Department of Physics. During his tenure at IISc, Homi Bhabha wrote the famous letter to Sir Dorabji Tata Trust that formed the genesis of the formation of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research which in turn became the bedrock of the Atomic Energy Programme. Homi Bhabha led the Atomic Energy Programme for a path-breaking 22 years. During this time, he was also made the chairman of the first United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, held in Geneva in 1955. He advocated international control of nuclear energy and the outlawing of atomic bombs by all countries proposing the use of nuclear energy strictly for the use of alleviating poverty and misery of the people.

Bhai Mohan Singh (1917-2006)

The doyen of the pharmaceutical industry in India, Bhai Mohan Singh was the man responsible for the success and transformation of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd., into a pharmaceutical giant. After a stint in the construction business during World War II he moved to and settled down in New Delhi where he started a business as a money lender. There he met Ranbaxy's original promoters, Ranjit Singh and Gurbax Singh who had got together to form Ranbaxy & Co. They sought additional financing from Bhai Mohan Singh but unable to make good the debt, sold Ranbaxy to him on August 1, 1952, for Rs. 2.5 lakhs. He turned into a manufacturing lab, a company that was merely a distributor for a Japanese pharmaceutical company manufacturing vitamins and anti-TB drugs. He collaborated with and later bought an Italian pharma company Lapetit Spa. One of his earlier achievements includes the launch of his first superband, Calmpose, in the late 1960s. Consequently, he established an R&D facility at Mohali and launched one blockbuster pill after the other, such as Roscillin, Cifran, and so on. Ranbaxy Laboratories went public in 1973 and at the same time, he introduced his sons to the business. Bhai Mohan Singh also co-founded Max India with his youngest son, Analjit Singh.

Muttaiya Annamalai Chidambaram (1918-2000)

Muttaiya Annamalai Chidambaram (MA Chidambaram) was an inspirational industrialist and cricket administrator having an ever-lasting impact on sports and trade. His career started with the establishment of a scooter factory in Mumbai. At a very young age, he served as the Director of the Indian Aluminium Company. He played a crucial role in founding the Southern Petrochemical Industries Corporation (SPIC) and also served as its Chairman until his last breath. He was the Mayor of Madras in 1955. Throughout his life, he overlooked the management of various sports organizations in the role of higher rank official. He worked as the Vice-President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 1956, as the President from 1960-61 to 1962-63, and as Treasurer for about twenty years. He was appointed as the head of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) for 32 years and he became the President of the All India Lawn Tennis Association from 1963 to 1966. The stadium at Chepauk was renamed MA Chidambaram stadium in recognition of his role in the negotiations between the TNCA and the Madras Cricket Club over the construction of the stadium in 1980. His other noted contributions include the foundation of Tamil Isai Sangam to promote music in Tamil and the contributions made by his trust towards the Voluntary Health Service started by Dr. K. Sanjeevi.

Shiv Kumar Burman (1856-1907)

Dr. S.K. Burman, a trusted doctor for several far-flung villages in Bengal, set up one of India's most admired FMCG companies, Dabur, focusing on health care. The word 'Dabur' was derived from the two syllables of S.K. Burman's title 'Daktar Burman' and was established in 1884 for producing Ayurvedic medicines with the objective of providing economical treatment to the masses. The first unit was set up at Garhia in Calcutta and then in 1919, the first R&D unit was set up. Dabur launched its first branded Chyawanprash in 1949 which gave the company huge popularity and helped it in becoming a household name. Dr. Burman also set up a non-profit organization known as Sundesh, Sustainable Development Society, promoting social welfare and upliftment within the spheres of health care, education, and other socio-economic activities. The CSR activities of Dabur continue to function through the organization set up by its founding father and path-breaking leader.

Vikram Sarabhai (1919-1971)

Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai (VA Sarabhai) was a creative scientist, a forward-thinking industrialist, an innovator, an educationist, a connoisseur of arts, an entrepreneur of social change, a pioneering management educator, and more. A science aficionado since childhood, he obtained his Tripos in Natural Sciences at Cambridge (UK) in 1940. He joined the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, doing research in cosmic rays, which he completed as his Ph.D. thesis at Cambridge. One of Vikram Sarabhai's greatest achievements was the establishment of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). He was strongly supported by Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha, the father of India's nuclear science program, in setting up the first rocket launching station in India at Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram. Dr. Sarabhai was instrumental in the launch of the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE from July 1975 - July 1976), a result of which the first Indian satellite, Aryabhata, was put in orbit in 1975 from a Russian Cosmodrome. Sarabhai was appointed Chairman, the Atomic Energy Commission in May 1966 after the sudden death of Homi Bhabha. He simultaneously handled responsibilities as Director and Professor of Cosmic Ray Physics and as Chairman of the Indian National Committee for Space Research Programme. Sarabhai was a great institution builder, and among his multifarious credits consist the achievement of establishing the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad; the Ahmedabad Textile Industry's Research Association (ATIRA), the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad; and Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram.

Dhirubhai Ambani (1932-2002)

Dhirubhai Ambani, one of India's most enterprising entrepreneurs, established India's largest private sector company, Reliance Industries Limited, the first Indian company to feature in Forbes 500 list. At the age of 16, after his matriculation, Dhirubhai moved to Aden, Yemen where he worked as a gas-station attendant, and a clerk in an oil company. He returned to India in 1958 with Rs. 50,000 and set up a textile trading company, which soon became India's largest private sector company, Reliance Industries Limited. Assisted by his two sons, Mukesh and Anil, Dhirubhai Ambani diversified his business into core specialization in petrochemicals with additional interests in telecommunications, information technology, energy, power, retail, textiles, infrastructure services, capital markets, and logistics. Dhirubhai Ambani is credited with shaping India's equity culture, attracting millions of retail investors in a market till then dominated by financial institutions. with innovative instruments like the convertible debenture, Reliance quickly became a favorite of the stock market in the 1980s. In 1992, Reliance became the first Indian company to raise money in global markets, its high-credit taking in international markets limited only by India's sovereign rating. Dhirubhai Ambani was named the Indian Entrepreneur of the 20th Century by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).