Lala Shri Ram
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Through World War I and Indian independence movement
The British Government in India conferred Shri Ram with knighthood in 1941 in recognition of his contributions to the development of Indian society.
Early life
Shri Ram was born on April 27, 1884. He was the first son of Madan Mohan Lal and Chando Devi, and he belonged to an Agarwal family of Haryana. He got most of his early education from a Municipal Primary School in Bazaar Sita Ram. He matriculated in March 1900 and was later enrolled in the Intermediate Arts course at Hindu College.
Coming from a family of modest means, Shri Ram began as a humble worker and went on to build one of India's largest business: Delhi Cloth & General Mills—an industrial empire manufacturing a vast variety of goods such as textiles, sugar, chemicals, vanaspati, pottery, fans, sewing machines, electric motors, and capacitors.
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Career
Lala Gopal Roy, Shri Ram's uncle, was one of the founders and the first secretary of Delhi Cloth & General Mills, which was founded on 2 March 1891. Prior, he had been a munim (a kind of private secretary) working in a pedhi.
Shri Ram appears on the scene first in 1905 (at the age of 21) when he attended an Annual General Meeting with his uncle, Lala Gopal Roy. His uncle died the same year and Shri Ram's father, Madan Mohan Lal, was appointed in his place. Four years later in 1909, Shri Ram joined the company as an apprentice in the Accounts Department under Munim Ram Path, without a formal title but with sufficient authority to act on his father's behalf. He was 25 years old. He ran the company with his father for another decade after that, but the latter slowly faded out, and Shri Ram assumed full formal charge.
During World War I (1914–18), Shri Ram persuaded his father to enter into a big contract to supply tents for the British Army, quickly earning the company a lot of money. Under a three-way contract between themselves, the company, and an agent, they were entitled to receive 20% of profits from the deal while the company received 50%. Shri Ram used the money to buy company shares, increasing his holding in the company from less than 5% to 16%, and to 20% by 1925.
In less than eight years after he gained control, Sir Shri Ram had quadrupled the company's value and pushed up sales more than five-fold. Profits again increased six-fold from 1921 to 1929. Sir Shri Ram parlayed the DCM Ltd with an assets totaling Rs 55 crore by 1963, the year he passed away. He entrusted the business to his two sons: Bharat Ram and Charat Ram. (His eldest son, Murli Dhar, had died in a plane crash near Karachi immediately after Indian Independence in 1949.)
Philanthropy
Education
In 1920, Shri Ram conducted the first experiment in vocation-oriented education by founding the Commercial Education Trust (CET). The first school promoted by CET was the commercial high school, which was raised in 1926 to the standard of an intermediate college, in 1930 to a degree college, and in 1934 to a post-graduate college. In 1942, Shri Ram became the chairman of the governing body of the college. By 1948, although comparatively young among the colleges of Delhi University, the Commercial College had the maximum enrolment possible under the university rules. The college offered a B.A. Pass course, a B.A. Honours course in Commerce, and M.A. courses in Economics and Commerce. In 1949, it was proposed to rename the college as "Shri Ram College of Commerce" but it took three years to implement it due to Shri Ram's reticence. His association with the CET continued right up to the end of his life.
The Shriram Institute for Industrial Research, founded in 1947 by Shri Ram, started functioning in 1950. Shri Ram believed that if India was to catch up with the rest of the world, it was necessary to understand existing technology and innovate it through research.
Lady Shri Ram College for Women was established in 1956 in New Delhi by Shri Ram in memory of his wife Phoolan Devi (Lady Shri Ram). The college began in a school building in Daryaganj, Central Delhi. Today, the college is located on a 5-acre (220,000 sq ft) campus in Lajpat Nagar in South Delhi.
Association with other organisations
On 16 February 1930, Shri Ram became the 4th president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), and with Mahatma Gandhi by his side, delivered his presidential address.
Shri Ram was nominated as a member of first Central Board of Directors of Reserve Bank of India, effective 1 January 1935.
On 2 March 1937, the Delhi Improvement Trust came into being and Shri Ram became its member.
Shri Ram was the member of All-India Organisation of Industrial Employers (AOIE) since its inception and became the President of AOIE for the year 1940 and 1941.
Death and legacy
Shri Ram died in Delhi on 11 January 1963 at age 79. Following his death, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, the President of India at the time, said, "He was not only a great industrialist but helped many good causes. His contributions to education are memorable."
Suggested reading
- Sir Shri Ram Biography prepared by The Shri Ram Biography Project
- From the Brink of Bankruptcy: The DCM Story by Vinay-Bharat Ram
- Draft of the Biography on Sir Shri Ram written by Bhupesh Bhandari
- Lala Shri Ram: A Study in Entrepreneurship and Industrial Management by Arun Joshi
- Shri Ram, A Biography by Khushwant Singh and Arun Joshi
- How business leaders like Shri Ram inspired workers to excel, Are unions losing influence by Dayal, I (1997) [Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27767528]