Kasturbhai Lalbhai - Legacy As A Businessman

Legacy As A Businessman

Kasturbhai was known for ethics despite being a stalwart of the cotton mills industry, which was notorious for underhand dealings in those days. In 1948, his business group was named in the list of business houses indulging in black-marketing. R. K. Shanmukham Chetty, the finance minister and a friend of Kasturbhai had to resign for reportedly suggesting that its name be dropped from the list. The Income Tax department followed its allegations with a spate of inquiries and after almost ten years, absolved the group of any wrongdoing. This lent authenticity to the ethical stature of Kasturbhai. At the same time, he was known to be a hard bargainer, especially, in purchase of capital-intensive equipment such as machinery. However, he always ensured that he bought only state-of-the-art machinery in terms of technological advancement. Despite the scale and scope of enterprises he established, the wealth of experience he had amassed over the years and more importantly, the friendly relations he had with the leaders of the Indian government, he remained a regional entrepreneur with all his projects located in Gujarat and most of them within Ahmedabad.