Name Ishwar Varshnei | Died 1948 | |
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Education Massachusetts Institute of Technology | ||
Ishwar Das Varshney (died 1948) was the father of the glass industry in India.
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Early life and education
He was born in Aligarh and was the son of Lala Jagannath Prasad and grandson of Lala Gabdamal, famous cloth merchants in Sikandra Rao. He studied at Tokyo's Higher Institute of Technical Training from 1902 to 1904 and was a special post graduate student in glass at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1904-1905.
Career
Known for his dreams and vision of a modern India, he started the first glass factory by the name of Paisa Fund Glass Works in Talegaon near Poona with the help of Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Later he established the first flat glass factory in Bahjoi by the name of United Provinces Glass Works, incorporated as a limited liability company in 1916. He was assisted by his wife Vidya Devi Varshney in times of struggle. An able scholar and industrialist, he was instrumental in starting country level organizations like AIGMF (All India Glass Manufacturers' Federation), CGCRI (Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute), and IDTI (Ishwar Das Technical Institute).
Legacy
He died in 1948 and was survived by three of his four sons. The eldest, Bishambar Dayal Varshnei who died in 1939, introduced hollow ware technology to India. His second son, Harish Chandra Varshnei is credited with the introduction of sheet glass manufacturing (with the Fourcault process) to Continental Asia (ex-Japan) in the 1920s.
The I. D. Varshnei Memorial Lecture of the Indian Ceramic Society is given in his honor.