LRG Naidu - A Socially Responsible Entrepreneur - Donar

Lakshminaickenpalayam Ramaswamy Govindasamy Naidu ( 1894 - 1970 ) was born as the fourth child to Ramaswamy Naidu and Chinnasamy Ammal on the 7 th of January 1894. L.R.Govindasamy Naidu was popularly known as LRG Naidu and he was an entrepreneur with a vision which encompassed several aspects of commerce and social life. He was closely associated with the Industrial Scientist GD Naidu from his early days. LRG Naidu married Ranganayaki Ammal and couple made Tirupur their home from the year 1924. The couple was blessed with four dynamic sons and a daughter Vijayalakshmi who was married to V.N.Ramachandran of Premier Mills.  It was from Tirupur that he grew from good to great and he ensured that his enterprises and policies were built to last. His Vijayalakshmi Motor Service,City Mofussil Transports and Tirupur Karur Transports were headquartered at Tirupur and the other bus company Madura Public Conveyance from his stable had 40 buses and the operations where centered around Dindigul. L.G.Balakrishnan & Brothers of Karur had another 50 buses in its flock. The vibrant LRG Naidu started a transport service , Rayalaseema Passenger and Goods Transport with a fleet of 150 buses at Hindupur in Andhra Pradesh. In addition he had purchased about 2500 acres of land at Rayalaseema and all of it were donated to the Sri Ramaswamy Naidu Vidyalayam ( June 1946 ) founded by him at Lakshminaickenpalayam in the sacred memory of his father.

The English skills of LRG Naidu were confined to the level of just knowing the alphabets but his determination ensured that he was able to understand what ever was required in the legal context and he was capable of correcting any document effortlessly. Those were the times when transport facilities were the need of the hour and if not for businessmen like LRG Naidu the business of transporting people and goods would not have reached the levels required for a growing population. At the time of the Second World War he had a fleet of 300 buses and it used to be an uphill task to run the buses for fuel was not available . Therefore the buses had to be equipped with charcoal gas plants and spare parts were another rarity too. LRG Naidu made all the charcoal gas plants in his facility at Tirupur. In addition to the transport business LRG Naidu created a new venture - L.G.Balakrishnan & Brothers Limited which began to involve itself in bus body building and manufacture of chains at Karur and Coimbatore. Another company ELGI Equipments Limited came up at Coimbatore and the family took up a number of allied and auxiliary businesses post nationalisation of their bus business in Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh. Therefore their family came up with ELGI Tyre & Tread Ltd ( ELGI Tread now ), Super Spinning Mills Ltd and also ELGI Electric & Industries Ltd over the years.

LRG Naidu was a man of enterprise and was into the business of cinema for some time. He belonged to rare tribe of entrepreneurs who were capable of handling diversified activities simultaneously and fortunately Coimbatore was blessed with more people like him. He was quick to understand that he had to be in areas with least Government interference and he came up with an airline company and called it Madras Presidency Airways over 60 years ago and it was a public limited company ! The adventurous spirit of LRG Naidu knew no bounds and the family got into the hospitality business through their revolutionary venture Ashoka Hotels at Chennai. The hotel was a popular destination for travellers for a number of years. In spite of being a busy entrepreneur LRG Naidu never forgot the core activity of our country - agriculture. He was a forerunner in the cultivation of seedless grapes and guava. The industrialist agriculturist entrepreneur believed that one had to spend 20 years in trying to learn in every which way which included experience and another 30 years by trying to learn and earn while willing to spend the rest of one's life for charity.

The first social and charitable venture of LRG Naidu was the Sri Ramaswamy Naidu Vidyalayam at his native village Lakshminaickenpalayam and it had a hostel for students while providing quarters for the staff even before independence. He was an early pioneer who provided noon meals for the kids who came from nearby villages and admitted people from all communities and castes into the school hostel. He even gave land to the Government for establishing a Dalit Hostel. Later on His Excellency the Maharaja of Bhavnagar who happened to be the officiating Governor - Maharaja Raol Shri Sir Krishna Kumarsinhji Bhavsinhji KCSI and the Collector of Coimbatore FWA Morris who was popularly known as Morris Gounder visited the school and participated in a number of activities. Several years later , the noble Acharya Vinobha Bhave visited the school. In order to make the school self-sustaining he established the LRG Naidu Education Trust by the year 1965 and at his Karmabhoomi Tirupur he came up with the Chinnasamy Ammal Middle School in the sacred memory of his mother and the institution came to be managed by the Tirupur Municipality. Another 30 acres were donated to for the LRG Government College for Women at Tirupur and all his four sons contributed towards the construction of the required buildings. One more charity was made in the name of his beloved wife - LRG Ranganayaki Ammal Maternity Centre. All his ancestral lands measuring about 100 acres and his house at Tirupur with about 8 acres of land and buildings were made over to the LRG Educational Trust. The life of LRG Naidu is sure worth emulating.

The equally successful and charitable sons of LRG Naidu - L.G.Balakrishnan, L.G.Varadarajulu, L.G.Ramamurthy and L.G.Nityanand have been the forerunners of Corporate Governance at Coimbatore and have given away a lot for charitable purposes. They have built schools, colleges and wards at hospitals over the years. It was their Individual Social Responsibility that impelled the LRG Naidu family to discharge their Corporate Social Responsibility in a fabulous manner. The area of heart research owes a lot to the good work of the family of LRG Naidu. The Cardiology Unit at the G . Kuppuswamy Naidu Memorial Hospital stands as a permanent tribute to the amazing entrepreneur, LRG Naidu. The entire family of LRG Naidu -  consisting of all his children, daughters in law, grandsons and granddaughters have been achievers who have made Coimbatore proud in every sphere.