Viren Shah
| Viren J. Shah | |
|---|---|
Viren J. Shah
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| 21st Governor of West Bengal | |
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In office December 1999 – 2004 |
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| Preceded by | Shyamal Kumar Sen |
| Succeeded by | Gopal Krishna Gandhi |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 12 May 1926 |
| Died | 9 March 2013 (aged 86) |
| Residence | Raj Bhavan, Kolkata |
Viren J. Shah (12 May 1926 – 9 March 2013) was an Indian politician and one-time Governor of the Indian State of West Bengal.
Shah was a member of Lok Sabha from 1967 to 1970 and of Rajya Sabha during 1975 -1981 and 1990-1996. He had served as Treasurer of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Shah was chairman emeritus of Mukand Steel, a steel and engineering company in Mumbai, where he held the position of managing director for 27 years from 1972 to 1999.
Viren J Shah was born in a middle-class family at Chittpore Road, Calcutta (now Kolkata) on May 12, 1926, as son of Jeewanlal Motichand and Jayaben. Jeewanlal Motichand had moved in early 1900 to Calcutta where, in Howrah area, he set up a facility for manufacture of aluminium utensils. He quit this business later and in 1939, took over Mukand Iron & Steel Works Ltd. with its factory in Lahore and at Reay Road, Bombay (now Mumbai) jointly with Jamnalal Bajaj at the instance of Mahatma Gandhi. This company, set up by Lala Mukandlal of Lahore, a follower of Mahatma Gandhi, was then on the verge of liquidation and Gandhiji persuaded Jeewanlal and Jamnalal to take over and run it in order to protect the livelihood of its employees. Viren Shah was raised in the intensely political environment of India’s struggle for freedom from British rule. He lived in Calcutta till 1935, when his father left for his hometown in Gujarat and took up the Presidency of Kathiawad Harijan Sevak Sangh and Khadi Prachar Sangh. Viren Shah had his early education in Bombay (now Mumbai) and Nashik and Wardha. The Commerce College at Wardha, where he was a student, was closed by the Government in 1942, following agitation by the students in support of India’s freedom struggle. Many years later, he attended the advanced management programme at the Harvard Business School, Boston, USA.
Viren Shah commenced his career with Mukand Iron & Steel Works Ltd. as an unpaid apprentice in 1944 in Lahore. He was in Lahore in 1946-47 when the partition of India took place. The bloodshed and carnage that followed partition of India afforded him opportunity as a young man of participating in active social work and of involving himself with the movement of refugees. This early experience helped him recognize later the vital interface between business and politics, the two apparently disparate arenas in which he was to pursue his career. Following the loss of the factory at Lahore in the wake of partition, when the Company decided to construct a new factory at Kurla on the outskirts of Bombay in early 1948, Shah started work as Assistant Manager in charge of construction. Thereafter, he worked as Business Manager in charge of Sales and Accounts for four years and became Chief Executive of the company in 1956. As Chief Executive, he took a series of pioneering decisions that put the Company in the vanguard of technological advance. In 1964, he became a Director and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company. He was, successively, Managing Director from 1968 and Chairman & Managing Director from 1972. Accessible always to the employees at all levels, he took actions on two occasions in early 1980s having a bearing on relations with unions of employees which were typical of him. With the union of workmen led by the militant leader Dr. Datta Samant, he struck a bargain granting increases in wages based on a promise to consistently maintain a stipulated level of production, a promise the union consistently failed to keep. On the top of this when the union demanded, in the face of declining profits, annual bonus in excess of the ceiling the law prescribed, Viren Shah declared a lockout of the factory. When the lockout was lifted, the workers went on an illegal strike and this led to the formation of a new union, followed by stable industrial relations thereafter. He acted differently with the union of white collar employees. When protracted negotiations yielded no results, Viren Shah sprang a surprise. In an action unprecedented in the annals of industrial relations, he called upon the union to set up a committee and decide for themselves, as if it was a committee of the Company’s directors, what the salaries of the employees represented by the union ought to be. He assured them that he would sign on the dotted line approving the terms as set by this committee. He kept his promise. The resulting settlement was widely noticed in the press. He was re-designated Chairman in 1994 and continue in this position till November 30, 1999. During his years of stewardship, the company grew into a position of technological leadership in steel, engineering and project management.
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