Saturday 20 June 2015

18-JUNE-1869 :- Birth Of Laxmanrao Kirloskar , Founder Of Kirloskar Group.

Laxmanrao Kashinath Kirloskar 
(1869-1956) an Indian businessman. He was the founder of the Kirloskar Group. He was born on 20 June 1869. In early 1890s Laxmanrao started bicycle dealership – he would buy bicycles in Bombay and send them to his brother Ramuanna in Belgaum where he would sell them. For a cycle of Rs. 700 to 1000 Ramuanna would also charge Rs. 15 for teaching how to ride.
He established a small unit in the former Aurangabad State for production of Chaff-cutters and manufacture of iron ploughs. In the early days, Kirloskar had to meet with opposition from farmers who believed that iron ploughs were poison to the land and make it useless. Superstitious farmers were extremely hard to convince and Laxmanrao Kirloskar took two years to sell his first iron ploughs. 1910 Laxmanrao started his factory in an arid waste land by the side of a renown railway station, named Kundal Road. The factory now known as famous Kirloskar Industries and the station called as Kirloskarvadi. Laxmanrao Kirloskar was not only an industrialist but also a great social reformer. When blind orthodoxy was rampant in rural area, he advocated the removal of untouchability. He banned untouchability in the township that he had established at Kirloskarvadi. He believed in social reform and tristed in the goodness of man. He employed ex-convicts as night watchman.

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