Velagapudi Ramakrishna
Velagapudi Ramakrishna 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.
Career
Ramakrishna was from a landowning family of the Kamma caste.[2] He was born in 1896 in the village of Bellamvaripalem, Nagaram mandal, near Repalle, in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, India.[citation needed] He went to England before World War I to study engineering and spent time at both Oxford University and the London School of Economics.[2] He acquired B.Sc. and M.A. degrees.[citation needed]
Ramakrishna joined the Indian Civil Service and eventually became Industrial Adviser to the Government of Madras before taking early retirement so that he could take over the Vuyyuru Co-operative Agricultural and Industrial Society, which he turned into a public limited company. The institution had been faltering prior to his involvement.[2]
Velagapudi Ramakrishna died in 1968.[citation needed] He had a son and a daughter.[3]
Positions held
- District Collector
- Director, Department of Industries
- Commissioner, Labour
- Development Commissioner, Government of Madras
Philanthropy
Ramakrishna funded the VSR & NVR College[4] in Tenali and the Sri Velagapudi Ramakrishna Memorial College[5] in Nagaram, Guntur district.
Memorials
The Velagapudi Ramakrishna Siddhartha Engineering College, near Vijayawada has been posthumously named after him,[6] as has the Andhra Chamber of Commerce building in Chennai.[7]
V. Ramakrishna Polytechnic in Thiruvottiyur, near Chennai, is an institution within the KCP campus and is named in memory of him.[citation needed]
References
- ^ KCP Web site
- ^ a b c Damodaran, H. (2008). India's New Capitalists: Caste, Business, and Industry in a Modern Nation. Springer. pp. 99–100. ISBN 978-0-23059-412-8.
- ^ "Private-public tie-ups must for growth: Governor". The Hindu. 30 April 2004. Retrieved 2016-09-20.
- ^ http://gist.ap.nic.in/cgi-bin/edn/ednshow.cgi/?en=9403
- ^ Accredited Colleges
- ^ Welcome,V R Siddhartha Engineering College
- ^ "In Chennai Today". The Hindu.