The Dalmia Companies came
into existence in India
in the early
1930s as the Dalmia-Jain Group.
Founded by the late Ramkrishna Dalmia, with the assistance of his
younger brother Jaidayal Dalmia and his son-in-law
Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain, the group’s
activities included banks and insurance companies, newspapers and
publishing houses, aviation and railway companies, electric supply
companies, collieries, a motor car company, biscuits, cement,
chemicals, distilleries, dairy products, jute, paper, plywood,
paints, refractories, sugar, textiles and others.
The Group’s greatest contribution to national development was in
the emergence of the Indian cement industry. Entering this area in
1936 as a challenge to the monopoly of one powerful combine, the
ACC Ltd., the Group set up several cement factories. Reflecting the
geographic expansion of the group and its presence in each corner
of the country, cement factories were set up in
Dalmianagar (Bihar, East India), Dalmia Dadri
(Haryana, North India), Dandot (West Punjab, now in Central
Pakistan), Dalmiapuram (Tamil Nadu, South India), Karachi (Sind,
now in South Pakistan), Rajgangpur (Orissa, East India) and Sawai
Madhopur (Rajasthan, North India).
In 1943, the Group established the Bharat Bank Ltd., which on the
basis of authorised capital, became the biggest bank of its time.
Later it acquired controlling interests in the Punjab National Bank
and in the Times of India group of publications. At the time, the
Dalmia companies together ranked third among India’s major
industrial groups after the Tatas and the Birlas. In the automotive
sphere, one company of the Group, Allen Berry & Co. Limited,
purchased the entire lot of American surplus disposal vehicles,
numbering about 50,000, after
World War
II. This company ran vast workshops in various parts of India
till the 1950s when it was disbanded.
The Dalmia
Family traces its roots to a town in Rajasthan
, known as Chirawa
.
Today, the family and its relatives have interests, among others,
in publishing, industrial explosives, cement, magnesite, sugar,
olive oil, leisure resorts and hotels, refractories, castings,
cigarettes, soda ash, textiles, rigs and drilling equipment and
services such as inbound tourism, public relations, business
process outsourcing, software development and financial
services.
Total turnover of these companies exceeds US$ 3 billion
Ramkrishna Dalmia
Ramkrishna Dalmia (7 April 1893 – 26 September 1978) was a pioneer
industrialist and founder of the Dalmia-Jain Group. He was born in
the small village of Chirawa in Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan and
started his life with barely any material resources. He shifted to
Calcutta at an early age. His father died when he was only 18 years
old, leaving behind no property. It fell upon Ramkrishna Dalmia to
support his mother, grandmother, wife and younger brother.
His maternal uncle, Motilal Jhunjhunwala, gave him a job in his
bullion business, which enabled him to earn just enough to support
his whole family. People he met through this formed a high regard
for his business acumen and sought his advice. He started a
brokerage business of his own and, soon, through a stroke of luck
and genius, made one lakh rupees on a single transaction. This was
the beginning of what would soon become India’s third-largest
business empire.
Beginning with a sugar factory in what is now known as
Dalmianagar in the state of Bihar, Dalmia went
on to set up many industries with the assistance of his younger
brother, the late Jaidayal Dalmia and his son-in-law, the late
Sahu Shanti Prasad
Jain.
Ramkrishna Dalmia gave huge financial support to the nationalist
movement against the British regime.
Gandhi’s
Civil Disobedience movement,
started in 1930 with the salt satyagraha, was, in fact, financed
almost entirely by him, a fact to which national leaders like
Dr. Rajendra Prasad and Shri
Syed Hasan Imam alluded in the future.
Dalmia had contacts with persons in all walks of life. Among
national leaders, he had direct contact with Gandhi, Jamuna Lal
Bajaj, Sardar Patel, Rajendra Prasad and
M.A. Jinnah. He set
up cement factories in the kingdoms of Jind and Jaipur at the
invitation of their ruling princes.
Dalmia was also a great philanthropist and presided over a number
of religious, educational and social conferences. He formed the
Anti Cow-Slaughter League. He began a worldwide campaign promoting
the idea of “One-World Government”. He authored many books on
spirituality and inspiration.
Dalmia died on the 26th of September 1978 at the age of 85 after a
prolonged illness.
Companies controlled by the Dalmia family today
Artech Infosystems Pvt. Ltd (NOIDA,
U. P.) - Software Products, IT Consulting &
BPO
Bharat Explosives Ltd. (Lalitpur, Uttar Pradesh) - Industrial
Explosives
Colwell & Salmon (NOIDA, U. P.) - Public Relations
Management
Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd. (incl. Dalmia Electronics Corpn.,
Dalmia Magnesite Corp, Govan Travels, Ramgarh Sugar Mills)
(Dalmiapuram, Tamil Nadu) - Cement, Refractories, Sugar, Magnesite,
Iron Ore, Travel Agency, Electronic Capacitors and Resistors.
Dalmia Centre for R&D (Coimbatore) - Applied Agricultural
Research
Dalmia Continental Pvt. Ltd (New Delhi) - Distribution and sale of
olive oil and related products
Dalmia HealthCare Ltd. (New Delhi) - Alternative healthcare
products and solutions
Dalmia Resorts International Pvt. Ltd. (New Delhi) - Time-share
Vacation Ownership, Hotels, Resorts.
DSS Mobile Communications Ltd. - Radio Paging Services
(Collaboration with Sunkyong, Korea and Samsung, Korea), BPO
Services
Electrosteel Castings Ltd. (Calcutta) - Castings
First Capital India Limited (New Delhi) (incl. Landmark Holdings) -
Financial Services, Private Equity Placement and Venture
Capital
GTC Industries Limited (New Delhi) - Tobacco products
GHCL Limited, Veraval, Gujarat (incl. Sree Meenakshi Mills,
Madurai, Tamil Nadu) - Soda Ash (collaboration with Akzo Zout
Chemie, Holland and Klockner Industries Analgen, Germany),
Textiles, BPO Services
Hari Machines Ltd. (Rajgangpur, Orissa) - Industrial ceramics and
engineering products
Grandeur Travels Pvt. Ltd. (New Delhi) - C&F Agents, Travel
Agents
KV Foundation Ltd. (New Delhi) - Real Estate Development, Merchant
Exports, Investments
OCL India Ltd. (Rajgangpur, Orissa) - Cement, Refractories,
Chemicals
Revathi Equipment Ltd (Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu) - Rigs and drilling
equipment
Shree Ram Plastic Udyog (NOIDA, U.P) - Plastic bottles and
Materials
Sunshine Tourism Services Pvt. Ltd. (New Delhi) - Tour Handling
& Management
TRW Limited (Chennai) - Welding Works
WGF Securities Limited. (New Delhi) - Merchant Banking, Financial
Services
OCL Iron & Steel Limited (Rajgangpur, Orissa) - Sponge Iron,
Billets
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