Dr. M.S.Ramaiah.
Born to poor farming parents and without opportunity to get decent education Dr. M.S Ramaiah's story is an inspiration to others. Unable to pursue education, trying his hand at farming in a small plot of land, taking up a small employment in a Government of Mysore Industrial testing laboratory and later on Mysore Railways he followed his father’s footsteps and took up contract jobs. He supplied bricks to military camps during second world war and post the war moved to Kolhapur to work on Dam projects and saw success at last. By 1960, he was a top most engineering contractor of the State. He also successfully completed and got the works of Gandak Project in Bihara
Services in the field of Education
He established Gokula Education Foundation, in 1962 through which he started the M.S.Ramaiah College of Engineering. Later, this was converted to M.S.Ramaiah Institute of Technology. During the last six decades, thousands of engineers have passed out of this institution and are serving with distinction not only in the Country but also abroad. In 1979, he started M.S.Ramaiah Medical College. As a part of the medical education, in 1985, he started 1,000 bed M.S.Ramaiah Medical Teaching Hospital. Today, this hospital is one of the best equipped hospitals in the city of Bangalore which is becoming a hi-tech city in medical facilities. Besides these institutions, M.S.Ramaiah Dental College, M.S.Ramaiah College of Pharmacy, M.S.Ramaiah College of Nursing, M.S.Ramaiah School of Nursing, M.S.Ramaiah College of Hotel Management, M.S.Ramaiah Institute of Management Studies and Research and M.S.Ramaiah College of Law have come up in the same campus. All these institutions are situated in a campus of about 100 acres. There is a Junior College, Degree College, High School and Nursery working under the Gokula Education Foundation.
Religious Service
Dr. M.S.Ramaiah became the President of Yogi Nareyana Yateendrara Trust in the year 1979. Today, it has developed into one of the premier religious centres in Karnataka. Every year, more than 5 lakh pilgrims visit the Amara Nareyana Temple and seek the blessings of the great saint of Kaiwara, Yogi Nareyana Yateendra. Apart from these activities, the trust has been making social services by providing various schemes from the trust ie., arranging free marriages every year for about 500 couples and more than 2,000 marriages are held every year for a small sum of money of Rs.700 to the poorer section of the society.
Social Service
Dr. M.S.Ramaiah Charities Trust, through which he started helping the poor and meritorious students to come up in life. The trust has been spending every year Rs.20 to Rs.25 lakhs by way of scholarship to backward class students who are pursuing higher studies. The trust also provides financial assistance to the candidates who appear for IAS and IPS examination
Industrialist
Some of the Industries which Dr. M.S.Ramaiah has promoted are - , Kvaerner John Brown (India) Pvt Ltd, Vishnu Forge (Mysore) Ltd, M.S.R & Sons Investments Ltd, Indo Malaysian Technopolis Pvt Ltd and M.S.Ramaiah Investments & Properties Ltd.
Agriculture
He has started the M.S.Ramaiah Dairy Farm in 1950s. He developed a vast coconut plantation of 800 acres and 200 acres of Horticulture farm on Bangalores outskirts
Journalism
In 1956, he acquired the “Thainadu” daily, then the oldest Kannada daily in the Mysore State. Not only he developed the daily, but also started “Gokula” a weekly and “Kailasa” a monthly.
Awards
Doctor of Letters, Honoris Causa, Tumkur University, posthumous Doctor of Science, Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belgaum, posthumous
