Nationality Indian Name Lala Ram | Religion Hindu Died January 11, 1963 | |
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Born 27 April 1884 ( 1884-04-27 ) India Parent(s) Madan Mohan Lall and Chando Devi | ||
Lala Shri Ram (aka Sir Shri Ram) (April 27, 1884 - January 11, 1963) was an Indian businessman and founder of Delhi Cloth & General Mills. Ram set up academic institutes such as Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) and the Lady Shri Ram (LSR) College in Delhi.
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Early Years
In 1890, at the age of 6 Ram was adopted by the widow of his uncle, Girdhari Lall, who had no children. Ram learnt the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic at a municipal school in Bazar Sitaram in Delhi. Later in 1896, he was sent to Anglo-Sanskrit School at Charkhewalan from where he matriculated in 1900 with third division marks. In 1900 Lala Shri Ram got married to Phoolan Devi, the daughter of Bhagwan Dass, a filigree merchant of Dariba Kalan. They had three children, Murli Dhar, Bharat Ram and Charat Ram. The eldest son, Murli Dhar was entrusted to manage DCM’s cotton mill at Lyallpur (now Faisalabad) which eventually went to Pakistan. But in 1949, Marli Dhar died in a plane crash on his way from Lahore to Karachi. Bharat Ram and Charat Ram joined DCM after graduating from St. Stephen’s College.
Career
Beginning his career as a shop hand at Mohan Brothers, a textile retail firm in Chandni Chowk in Delhi. He pooled his savings with those of his friend and started a stationery shop, which failed. He then partnered with his brother-in-law (sister’s husband) and set up a ginning factory at Alwar, which also failed. Ram took up a clerical job with the contracting firm, Rai Bahadur Singh and Sons of Rawalpindi. Then, in 1909, he began working in the accounting department at Delhi Cloth & General Mills.
In 1930 at the age of 46 he became president of FICCI and at the annual general meeting of FICCI he asked British businessmen to stop discriminating against the people of India.
Ram was instrumental in government granting protection to the domestic sugar industry by raising the duty on imported sugar in 1932. Ram set up the Shriram Institute for Industrial Research in 1947 that became operational in 1950. The Government of India in 1952 appointed him as one of the two members from the private sectors on the board of the public sector Sindri Fertlisers & Chemicals. Ram became the Chairman of the public sector firm in 1957.
In 1920 he founded the Commercial Education Trust and set up seven schools over 40 years including Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) and the Lady Shri Ram College (LSR).
Ram was made a member of the seven-member committee of the Planning Commission that laid the blueprint for technical education in the First Five-Year Plan. In 1955, he joined the planning committee of the Administrative Staff College in Hyderabad and the National Institute of Management in Kolkata. Ram was elected as the Vice-Chairman of the Delhi Municipal Committee in the 20s and was one of the seven architects of the Bombay Plan of 1944-45. The British Government bestowed knighthood upon Ram in 1941 and deemed him Sir Shri Ram.