Kasturbhai Lalbhai
Kasturbhai Lalbhai | |
---|---|
Arvind Mills | |
Spouse | Sharda Chimanlal Jhaveri |
Children | Shrenik, Siddharth |
Parent(s) | Mohini and Lalbhai Dalpatbhai |
Awards | Padma Bhushan |
Kasturbhai Lalbhai (19 December 1894 – 20 January 1980) was an Indian
Family
Kasturbhai belonged to the Jain family of Nagarsheths (city chief) of Ahmedabad, recognized by the Mughals, Marathas and the English during different times.[1]
He was the descendant of
Early life
Kasturbhai was born to Mohini and Lalbhai Dalpatbhai, a preeminent
He studied at Municipal School Number Eight near
He was married to Sharda Chimanlal Jhaveri in May 1915 and had two sons, Shrenik and Siddharth.[5]
Business
He joined Raipur Mill as chairman in 1912. The operations of the mill had not yet stabilized; hence, Kasturbhai had to take care of operations closely. He started off as a timekeeper in the mill, but fed up with the repetitive nature of the job, he started working with suppliers of the mill and traveled far and wide to understand the supplier market. The boom in demand during and post-
In 1948, his business group was named in the list of business houses indulging in black-marketing. R. K. Shanmukham Chetty, the finance minister and a friend of Kasturbhai had to resign for reportedly suggesting that its name be dropped from the list. The Income Tax department followed its allegations with a spate of inquiries and after almost ten years, absolved the group of any wrongdoing.[10]
In 1952, his trusted advisor and general manager, Dahyabhai Motilal Patel, helped strategise and found
Politics
He was elected in Central Legislative Assembly in December 1923. During his three-year term, he was involved in lobbying for Indian industries including repeal of excise duty on textiles.[12] During the 1930s, he became close to Mahatma Gandhi and helped him in the Swadeshi movement, which boycotted foreign goods and promoted local industries. He was also indulged in negotiation of taxes with British for Indian textiles during economic depression of the 1930s.[13]
He held several important positions after independence of India, including Advisory Committee on Fundamental Rights, Minorities and the Administration of Tribal and Excluded Areas in 1947, chairmanship of the Economic Committee of the Ministry of Finance in 1948, chairmanship of Central Public Works Department Industry Committee in 1952, chairmanship of National Research Development Corporation, member of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, trustee of Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, member of Indian Investment Centre. He also became the trustee and chairman of Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Fund. He also served as a member of Minorities Sub-committee as a representative of Jainism.[14]
Institution building
Kasturbhai was elected as the President of Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries in 1934 and the President of Ahmedabad Textile Mill Owners Association in 1935. From 1937 to 1949, he served as the Director of Reserve Bank of India.
He along with
He and Vikram Sarabhai established Ahmedabad Textile Industries Research Association (ATIRA) before independence under Ahmedabad Textile Mill owners Association for promoting research in field of textiles.[16]
AES also donated land for the establishment of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA). Kasturbhai along with Vikram Sarabhai were instrumental in it. He was on the board of IIMA but declined to accept the position of its chairman.[16][17] Now IIMA has Kasturbhai Lalbhai Management Development Centre and a Kasturbhai Lalbhai Chair in Entrepreneurship.
To promote engineering and technology, he founded an engineering college in 1947 and named it after his father, Lalbhai Dalpatbhai College of Engineering.[16] He also established the Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Institute of Indology in 1962.[18]
In 1949, he founded the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industries (GCCI). From 1955 to 1965, he was a chairman of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). He founded the Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Institute of Indology in 1962 which preserves many manuscripts, rare books, and microfilms. In 1972, Sankat Nivaran Society was founded by Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industries and Ahmedabad Textile Mills Owners' Association.
He commissioned world-renowned architects such as Louis Kahn, Le Corbusier, B. V. Doshi and Charles Correa to design some of these institutes and bring modern architecture in Ahmedabad.[17]
Later life
With time, Kasturbhai started handing over the operations of his businesses to his family in the 1960s. He devoted more time to public activities. He retired from business in January 1977. He died on 20 January 1980 in Ahmedabad.[19]
Religious activities
He was a strict Jain. He became chairman of
Recognition
He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian honour in 1969 by the Government of India.[22]
See also
- Arvind Mills
- Lalbhai Dalpatbhai
Notes
- ^ THE NAGARSHETH OF AHMEDABAD: THE HISTORY OF AN URBAN INSTITUTION IN A GUJARAT CITY, Dwijendra Tripathi and M. J. Mehta, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Vol. 39, Volume I (1978), pp. 481–496 (16 pages)
- ISBN 9788171880171.
- ^ "The Lalbhais – A Historical Perspective". Arvind Mills. Archived from the original on 1 December 2011. Retrieved 28 November 2011.
- ^ a b Piramal, Gita. Business Legends. p. 309.
- ^ a b Piramal, Gita. Business Legends. p. 310.
- ^ Piramal, Gita. Business Legends. pp. 312–314.
- ^ Piramal, Gita. Business Legends. p. 337.
- ^ Piramal, Gita. Business Legends. pp. 347–348.
- ^ Piramal, Gita. Business Legends. p. 349.
- ^ Piramal, Gita. Business Legends. pp. 403–405.
- ^ Piramal, Gita. Business Legends. p. 350.
- ^ Piramal, Gita. Business Legends. pp. 329–331.
- ^ Piramal, Gita. Business Legends. pp. 350–393.
- ^ Piramal, Gita. Business Legends. pp. 406–407.
- ^ "Ahmedabad Education Society". Archived from the original on 27 September 2008. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
- ^ a b c d "Dynamic leadership & Contributions". AES. Archived from the original on 11 July 2013. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
- ^ a b Piramal, Gita. Business Legends. p. 424.
- ^ Yagnik, Bharat (8 November 2011). "India gets its first e-library of ancient manuscripts". The Times of India. TNN. Archived from the original on 4 November 2013. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
- ^ Piramal, Gita. Business Legends. p. 421.
- ^ The dynamics of a tradition: Kasturbhai Lalbhai and his entrepreneurship, Dwijendra Tripathi, Manohar, 1981, p. 50
- ^ શેઠ આણંદજી કલ્યાણજી પેઢીનો ઇતિહાસ Sheth Anandji Kalyanji Pedhino Itihas 1, Ratilal Dipchand Desai, Shilchandrasuri, Anandji Kalyanji Pedhi Ahmedabad 1983
- ^ "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 October 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2015.