Ramakrishna Dalmia: A capitalist with the heart of a revolutionary

livemint.com:

NEW DELHI : Indian business over the years has had very few mavericks with the mix of audacity and controversy that Ramakrishna Dalmia, the founder of the Dalmia group, did. As much a product of his times as an architect of his destiny, he was a defiant and towering figure, his life a potent cocktail of outsized personality, political ambition and shrewd financial dealings. To that, he added strategic alliances, including his little-known piquant friendship with his neighbour Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

A capitalist with the heart of a revolutionary, Dalmia's ambitions extended beyond boardrooms and balance sheets to the corridors of political power. Thus, Jawaharlal Nehru’s socialism left him unimpressed, though he offered his peacemaking services to Nehru and Jinnah’s sibling spats. Born in 1893 in Rajasthan's Chirawa, Dalmia instinctively waded into the intricacies of business with his famed Marwari acumen.

By the 1920s, he had become a formidable Indian industrialist. With sugar as his entry point, he soon diversified into cement, textiles and newspapers, each acquisition solidifying his reputation as a business titan. At its peak, the group was second only to Tata and the Birlas.

But if there was a method to Dalmia’s expansion, it was only known to him. Thus, he acquired three jute mills from Andrew Yule and in the years following World War 2, purchased 50,000 American vehicles and jeeps, weapon carriers and command cars to refurbish and sell. In 1947, he bought Indian National Airways Ltd, one of the four major airlines in India at the time and changed its name to Dalmia-Jain Airways.