Karamshi Jethabhai Somaiya (16 May 1902 - 9 May 1999) was an Indian educationist who founded educational institutes in Maharashtra state in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. He was awarded the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...

for his service to society in 2000. The

Somaiya Vidyavihar Somaiya Vidyavihar University is a private university located in the Vidyavihar suburb of Mumbai. It is the second largest campus in Mumbai, superseded only by the Powai campus of the Indian Institute of Technology. Its campus is approximate ...

educational campus in Mumbai and several colleges in this campus are named after him. He was also an industrialist and founder of Somaiya Group of industries.

Early life and education

Karamshi Jethabhai Somaiya, born on 16 May 1902 in the remote village of malunja in shrirampur taluka Ahmednagar district of Bombay Presidency,

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. Karamshi, after completing school at the New High School in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

(now the Bharda New High School) went back to his hometown in Ahmednagar. Karamshi Somaiya engaged in looking after his father's small grocery business, would travel from village to village selling groceries and booking orders.

Business career

In the 1939 Karamshi Jethabhai Somaiya launched 2 sugar factories – in Sakarwadi and in Lakshmiwadi to mark the launch of his own sugar business. He soon came to be known as the Sugar King of India. Karamshi became a partner in a leading sugar trading firm of Shobachand Ramnarayan Khatod of

Shrirampur Shrirampur is a city and a municipal council located in the Ahmednagar district of the Indian state of Maharashtra situated at 19.62 N, 74.66 E in western Maharashtra Climate Shrirampur has a tropical wet and dry climate with average tempe ...

in Ahmednagar district. The Deccan canals were commissioned by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

. He was the President of the Deccan Sugar Factories Association, the President of the Deccan Sugar Technologists Association.

Works in education, medical, agriculture

Karamshi Jethabhai Somaiya bought a large area of land at

Ghatkopar Ghatkopar (Pronunciation: �ʱaːʈkopəɾ is a suburb in eastern Mumbai. The area is served by the railway station on the Central Line of the Mumbai Suburban Railway and the metro station on Line 1 of the Mumbai Metro. History Ghatkopar in ...

. Karamshibhai laid the foundation for

in 1959. In close to four and a half decades it has grown into a large educational complex with 34 institutions catering to diverse fields of education such as Humanities, Engineering, Education, Medicine, Management and Mass Communication, with more than 23,000 students and 1,500 teaching faculty on a 65-acre campus. Karamshi Jethabhai Somaiya established the Girivanavasi Pragati Mandal in 1974 in the tribal area of

Dahanu Dahanu (Pronunciation: �əɦaːɳuː is a coastal town and a municipal council in Palghar district of Maharashtra state in Konkan division. It is located 110 km from Mumbai city and hosts Adani Power’s thermal power station. It is the ...

, in

Thane Thane (; also known as Thana, the official name until 1996) is a metropolitan city in Maharashtra, India. It is situated in the north-eastern portion of the Salsette Island. Thane city is entirely within Thane taluka, one of the seven taluk ...

District, 110 km from

. Mandal associated well known surgeons and physicians with the annual eye-cum-medical camps. The Mandal established a training centre and experimental farm for agriculture extension work. Karamshi founded a residential school to cater to the educational needs of children of the migrant
tribal population providing free quality instruction. He also built a 40-bed hospital with a resident doctor facility to cater to their health needs.

References

K. J. Somaiya Vocational Training InstituteSomaiya colleges to seek deemed university status About Karamshi
{{DEFAULTSORT:Somaiya, Karamshi Businesspeople from Maharashtra Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in social work Gujarati people 1902 births 1999 deaths 20th-century Indian educational theorists 20th-century Indian businesspeople People from Shrirampur 20th-century Indian philanthropists Businesspeople in the sugar industry Founders of Indian schools and colleges