Some 30 years ago, a Bengali daily described Rama Prasad Goenka as “one of the greatest Bengalis” in an article that reflected on how much the Marwari business tycoon had adopted the State, its people and culture as his own.
“If I’m not a Bengali, who is?” he would quip. “I’m the sixth generation of my family here with deep roots going back to nearly 200 years.” The Goenka family’s roots can be traced to as back as 1820s when Ramdutt Goenka came to Kolkata from a small village in Rajasthan to do business with the British East India Company.
Born on March 1, 1930, Rama Prasad Goenka or Ramababu, as he preferred to be called, considered himself a native of Bengal.
He was educated at Presidency College, was married in the city, raised his children here and built the business he had inherited into an empire. His ‘Bengali-ness’ was most noticeable every
Setbacks
His long and successful innings as an industrialist was not always smooth and easy. He suffered two major setbacks, both in Bengal. He acquired Dunlop India from the British parent company in 1984 but had to leave it after four years, after a bitter battle with the Chhabrias. In the late 1980s, he accompanied Jyoti Basu in a helicopter to Haldia to lay the foundation-stone of the petrochemical complex there, ostensibly to act as co-promoter of the project. But he subsequently withdrew, long before the project saw the light of day. Two of his other regrets were his group’s absence in the coal mining and telecom sectors. The investment plan in coal mining was not pursued in time and the group’s cellular business had to be sold to meet commitments in Ceat Finance, that had fallen on bad days.
Power venture
By far his most significant achievement was venturing into power generation and distribution, particularly the acquisition in 1991 of Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (now CESC Ltd), the over 100-year-old power utility set up by the British. Interestingly, his son Sanjiv Goenka had once told this correspondent that his father had initially vehemently opposed the CESC acquisition. Ramababu had felt it was too big a task, an intrinsically difficult business, compounded by the then crippling power situation in West Bengal that could make people hostile to the new management. He finally relented as Sanjiv’s mother strongly supported the son, who pushed for acquisition.
During his long career, Ramababu had inspired many. But perhaps his biggest influence was on Sanjiv “not only as a father, but also as a human being and businessman”. Over the years, the son watched how his father related to people, handled critical situations and inspired those around him. Yet, he admits that he has not been able to emulate him fully.
“After all, we’re two different people from two very different generations and everyone is not born to be a legend in his lifetime, which my father is,” Sanjiv once said. Another difference, of course, is that while the son got many things virtually on a platter, his father had to strive hard for some of his accomplishments.
Traditional business
Ramababu grew up in a traditional business environment made up of such things as jute, tea, cotton textiles, banking and some chemicals. But he gradually broke away from the beaten path and charted a new course by entering such areas as electricity, tyres, carbon black, engineering, cables, pharmaceuticals, music and retail, to name a few.
His family had distinguished itself as a prominent business family during the Raj. Both, his grandfather Sir Badridas Goenka, and grand-uncle Sir Hariram Goenka, were conferred knighthoods by the British Crown for their outstanding contribution to Indian business and community.