Velagapudi Ramakrishna
Velagapudi Ramakrishna CIE, (1896–1968) was an Indian Civil Service (ICS) officer, industrialist, and philanthropist. He started the KCP (Krishna Commercial Products) group of companies in 1941 with a co-operative sugar factory in Andhra Pradesh.[1] He was a pioneering industrialist in the erstwhile Madras State.
Velagapudi Ramakrishna | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1896 |
| Died | 1968 (aged 71–72) |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Parent |
|
Family
Ramakrishna was born in a Telugu-speaking landowning family to Velagapudi Venkata Subbayya Chowdary in 1896 in the village Bellamvaripalem (Nagaram mandal, near Repalle) in the Guntur district of India.[2] He studied at The University of Edinburgh and acquired B.Sc. and M.A. degrees. He further was affiliated with the London School of Economics.[2] His father (pre-adoption surname: Katragadda) originally came from Tellapadu, Maddipadu Mandal, in Prakasam District.[3]
Ramakrishna died in 1968 and was survived by two sons and a daughter: V. Maruthi Rao, V. Lakshmana Dutt, and Rajeshwari Ramakrishnan.
Ramakrishna's second son, V. L. Dutt, a past chairman of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI),[4][5][6][7] was the chairman and managing director of KCP Limited.[8] His wife, Indira Dutt, is a daughter of the Raja of Muktyala and the President of the World Telugu Federation.[9] Ramakrishna's daughter, Smt. Rajeswari Ramakrishnan, is the managing director of Jeypore Sugar Company Limited. Her son R. Prabhu is the Congress MP from the Nilgiris (Ooty), Tamil Nadu, a five-term Member of Parliament[10] and a former Union minister in India.[10]
Positions held
- District Collector
- Director, Department of Industries
- Commissioner, Labour
- Development Commissioner, Government of Madras
- Member of Parliament
Memorial institutions
- The Velagapudi Ramakrishna Siddhartha Engineering College, near Vijayawada has been posthumously named after him.[11]
- He also funded the VSR & NVR College[12] in Tenali and the Sri Velagapudi Ramakrishna Memorial College[13] in Nagaram, Guntur district.
- The Andhra Chamber of Commerce building in Chennai[14] has also been named after Velagapudi Ramakrishna.
- V Ramakrishna Polytechnic in Thiruvottiyur, Near Chennai is an institution within KCP campus and is named in memory of Velagapudi Ramakrishna.
Notes
- KCP Web site
- Damodaran, H. (25 June 2008). India's New Capitalists: Caste, Business, and Industry in a Modern Nation. Springer. pp. 99–100. ISBN 978-0-230-59412-8.
- Chalichema, Venkataramaiah (1964). Guntur Jilla Kammavaaru. pp. 176–177.
- "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - "Welcome Address by Dr V L Dutt, Past President, FICCI and CMD of KCP Limited : Conference on Climate Change Issues & Opportunities". Archived from the original on 1 July 2009. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
- "[ INTERNATIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ]". Archived from the original on 22 January 2010. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
- http://www.natcomindia.org/chennai.pdf
- "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 16 February 2022.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : KCP's Indira Dutt is now looking to new horizons
- Current Lok Sabha Members Biographical Sketch
- Welcome, V R Siddhartha Engineering College
- http://gist.ap.nic.in/cgi-bin/edn/ednshow.cgi/?en=9403
- Accredited Colleges
- The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : In Chennai Today[Usurped!]