Sir Biren Mookerjee
| Sir Biren Mookerjee | |
|---|---|
| Born | 14 February 1899 Bhabla, Basirhat, Bengal Presidency, British India |
| 💀Died | 4 November 1982 Kolkata, West Bengal, India4 November 1982 |
| 💼 Occupation | Engineer, Industrialist |
| 👩 Spouse(s) | Lady Ranu |
| 👪 Relatives | Nisha Pillai(grand daughter) |
Early life
Son of pioneering industrialist Sir Rajen Mookerjee, he studied Engineering at Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur before proceeding to Trinity College, Cambridge, from where he did his B.A. and M.A. On return to India in 1924, he joined Martin & Co. in 1924. He was knighted in 1942.[1]
Personal life
Biren Mukherjee married Ranu Adhikari, daughter of Phoni Bhusan Adhikari, a professor of philosophy in Varanasi. Ranu later Lady Ranu [1907-2000] was one of the exquisite beauties of her time, one of Rabindranath Tagore's closest associates since her childhood days and later became a great connoissure of art and culture.
Association with steel industry
With the death of Sir Rajen Mookerjee in 1936, the mantle of industrial entrepreneurship fell on Sir Biren. He made his debut as Chairman of the Steel Corporation of Bengal, which set up the steel plant at Burnpur, adjacent to the iron making plant set up earlier. SCOB was later merged with IISCO. [ Srinivasan, N.R., "History of The Indian Iron and Steel Company", 1983, pp 60-61, published by IISCO, Burnpur. ] In December 1953, Sir Biren, along with other representatives of his company signed a loan agreement in Washington for US $ 31.5 million, to cover the foreign exchange requirement for the expansion of the plant. It was the first instance when the World Bank had advanced any loan to any industry in the private sector.He signed another loan agreement with the World Bank in 1956. What was most remarkable was that around 75% of the requirements of expansion were met by internal cash generation.
Sir Biren was an imposing leader with a dynamic personality galvanising a team at Burnpur to produce results. The team consisted of diverse elements such as J. McCracken, F.W.Lahmeyer, S.L.Moffat, I.S.Puri, and N.R.Dutt.
Sir Biren faced high drama when in 1968, Ramnath Goenka of the Indian Express Newspapers Ltd. tried unsuccessfully to take over IISCO. Sir Biren had survived with government support, since he held only two per cent of the shares of the company.
references
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- ↑ Sengupta, Subodh Chandra; Bose, Anjali (1976). Samsad Bangali Charitabhidhan (Biographical dictionary) (in Bengali). Calcutta: Sahitya Samsad. p. 460. Search this book on
- ↑ Sengupta, Subodh Chandra; Bose, Anjali (1976). Samsad Bangali Charitabhidhan (Biographical dictionary) (in Bengali). Calcutta: Sahitya Samsad. p. 460. Search this book on
