Shipyard
To face competition in the shipping business from the British and other foreign businesses, Walchand entered allied businesses such as insurance. In 1937, he presided over the conference of Indian insurance companies held in Calcutta.
He also believed that there was a strong need for a shipyard in the country and started work on it in 1940 at Visakhapatnam. It was named Scindia Shipyard Limited and its first product, the ship Jalusha was launched soon after independence by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1948. However, the shipyard came under government control a few months later (due to the presumed importance of the project to country’s security and economic growth) and was fully nationalized in 1961 and was renamed Hindustan Shipyard Limited.
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