Indian Industrialist
Who is T.V.Sundaram?
T.V.Sundaram is the man of principles. He is one of the most successful Industrialists in India. Sundaram was a forward thinker and a follower of Gandhi a philosophies. His vision is to start a bus service n rural Madurai. Where traveling in motors is still a dream to everyone. He not only started the motor services he started motor industry, automobiles, related components and also finance services.
Childhood:
T.V.Sundaram Iyengar was born in 1877. In a village called Thirukkurungudi which is in the Tirunelveli district. Sundaram Iyengar started his career as a lawyer. Then he got to work for Indian railways and later in a bank.
T.V.Sundaram Vision:
In 1930, using automobile was still a dream for many Indians. At that time itself, he got the vision to start the first ever rural bus service in Madurai. He did have a passion to do business but that alone was not his passion. He wants to do service to the common man. With his hard work, determination, innovative and visionary ideas, T.V. Sundaram formed the base for ‘T.V.Sundaram Iyengar and Sons Group of Companies’. It is one of India’s largest industrial conglomerates.
T.V.Sundaram early career details:
To achieve his passion for business, he left his job and ventured into the motor transport industry. He started the first bus service in the city of Madurai in 1912. Then in 1913, he started the T.V Sundaram Iyengar and Sons Group of Companies. This paved him the way to establish a “TVS” group. At the time of the Second World War, the Madras Presidency had faced a lot of petrol scarcity. So he went on to design an alternative of petrol engine called TVS Gas Plant. This design had met the petrol scarcity. Additionally, he started the rubber factories, Madras Auto Service Limited and Sundaram Motors Limited. In the 1950’s this was the largest distributor of General Motors.
T.V.S group:
After quitting his job, he started the foundation for the motor transport industry in South India. In 1911 he started the bus service in Madurai. Later in 1911, he established the T.V. Sundram Iyengar and Sons Limited. He operated the company with good technical skills. So, on his death, there are a number of Lorries and busses that got to run under his name Southern Roadways Limited. This paved his way to start the TVS Group. His whole Brahmin family got into this business. He got good leadership and authority over skills.
He lost his elder son early. With his other four sons T.S. Rajam, T.S. Santhanam, T.S. Srinivasan and T.S. Krishna he started the business. They become an integral part of the TVS group. Each one is responsible for distinct branches. Among all other branches Shri. Sundram Iyengar’s branch was the largest and enjoys a turnover of about US$ 8.5 Billion. This company has a strength of about 60,000. It operates in the diverse fields like IT solutions and services, finance and electronics, automotive dealerships and automotive component manufacturing.
Contributions of T.V.S group:
T.V. Sundaram Iyengar & Sons were pioneers in the automobile industry. In 2012, they got the best dealership award in the three wheeler category. There are a number of companies that came under the TVS group. And the list is given below:
- Lucas TVS
- Sundaram Motors
- Sundaram Brake Linings
- TVS Logistics
- TVS Southern Roadways LTD
- Sundaram Hydraulics Limited
- TVS InfoTech
- TVS Motor Company
- ZF Electronics TVS (India) Private Limited
- Sundaram Finance
- Turbo Energy Limited
- Axles India
- Sundaram Clayton
- Wheels India
- Sundaram Fasteners
- Brakes India
T.V.Sundaram personal life:
T.V. Sundaram got married to Lakshmi Ammal. They had eight children on the total in which five sons and three daughters. His son T. S. Doraiswamy, died at an early age. And his daughter T. S. Soundram is a teenage widow. She got remarried to G. Ramachandran who is a social reformer, under the compulsion of Mahatma Gandhi. Later her daughter involved herself in the Indian Independence movement. To make her great honor, a postal stamp was released for her.
Death:
T.V. Sundaram was a successful businessman as well as a great art collector of that period. For that, he got appreciation from Rajaji, a senior statesman and governor general of India at that time. He then got retired and transfers his company authorities to his sons. Later at the age of 78, he died on 28th April 1955 at Kodaikanal. When he died his four sons, three daughters and his wife survived. To honor him Union Government of India on 7 August 1956 unveils buses in bronze and in marbles in the city of Madurai, Tamilnadu.