Unknown to the outside world, a silent revolution is happening at Coimbatore in South India. A cluster of engineering companies are designing and developing machines and motors which power automobiles and aircraft manufactured by global industrial giants, and these exhibits could be used to promote the ‘Make in India’ concept, writes KUMAR CHEllAPPAN
Unknown to the outside world, a silent revolution is happening in Coimbatore, one of the very few beautiful cities in South India. A cluster of engineering companies spread across the length and breadth of the district are designing and developing machines and motors which power automobiles and aircraft manufactured by global industrial giants. Titans of industry which include Ratan Tata, Cyrus Mistry and other global entrepreneurs are regular visitors to Coimbatore, the city with dreamy eyes.
Coimbatore (Kovai in Tamil) has the potential to be the capital of India’s engineering industry. The transformation of the city has nothing to do with Jawaharlal Nehru, who is credited with all progress made by the country in various sectors including the field of Information Technology!
The pioneer of this revolution is Gopalaswamy Doraiswamy Naidu (1893-1974) whom modern day world describes as the one and only Karma Yogi and a person who lived, thought and acted ahead of his times. Born as a son of an ordinary farmer, GD Naidu is a school dropout. “Though a school dropout, education , information and intelligence did not drop out of him. He was the one and only Karma Yogi of our times,” describes S Kalyanaraman, a former banker with Asian Development Bank and presently, director, Saraswati Research Centre, Chennai, about Naidu.
When UMS Technologies, a company founded by him recently came out with replicas of the 1886 Benz Motorwagen and the 1896 Ford quadricycles, which put the products made by the original manufacturers way behind them, people who have heard about Naidu were not at all surprised. last heard in Coimbatore business circles is that automobile makers Rolls Royce and Bugatti have approached UMS Technologies for replicas of some of the vintage cars made by them.
Please don’t be under the impression that UMS and its engineers are specialists in carving out replicas. The company is the sole manufacturer of hi-tech aircraft engines which power drones and unmanned aerial vehicles flown by many developed countries. The motto of UMS seems to be silent work and superb achievements. Naidu never left any books or speeches for the posterity. He did not have time to write books. Till the last moment of his life, he was busy, inventing and innovating.
Who is this man G D NaiduIJ His expeditions and explorations in the world of technology began in 1913 when as a 16-year-old farm labourer he saw the British revenue officer of the locality lancashire riding a 1912 model Rudge motor cycle. Naidu left his farm job and came to Coimbatore and started working as a helper in a hotel so that he could be near the bike for three or four hours a day. Seeing his interest in the bike, lancashire entrusted him with its upkeep. When Naidu had sufficient money, he bought the machine from lancashire for `300, a princely amount those days. The Rudge is still preserved in the GeDee Car Museum in immaculate condition.
The Rudge turned out to be Naidu’s University. He dismantled and re-assembled the machine many times over. By 1920 he launched a bus service between Pollachi and Palani, the first ever transport company in Coimbatore. The United Motor Service owned by Naidu emerged as the biggest fleet owners of that time. Meanwhile, his interest in machines led to the development of the country’s first indigenous motor. This was the “foundation stone” of the engineering industry in Coimbatore. In 1937 Naidu went to Britain to visit the Rolls Royce company. So enamoured was he with the workmanship of the people in the company, he purchased a brand new Rolls Royce and imported it to Coimbatore. It was not for driving around in the city to show off his opulence to the people. Naidu called all his engineers and workers and showed them the craftsmanship behind the assemble of a car. “When he became too weak to stand for hours and explain things, he broke open the car, took the engine out so that he could explain the magic behind the car without overstraining himself,” said son G D Gopal (76) who heads the industrial empire and charity works left behind by Naidu.
In 1950, Naidu developed an indigenous car which could be sold for `1,000. “It was a low cost utility car designed and made with the Indian roads in mind. But the Government of the day refused to give him license and permission to manufacture the car,” said Gopal. Naidu was a victim of the license-permit raj and crony capitalism, trademarks of the Nehruvian socialism!
“Had Naidu opted for some kind of lobbying with the powers that be of the day, he would have become the top industrialist of the country. Naidu was a person who lived , thought and acted ahead of his times,” said veteran scribe Sam Rajappa who had followed Naidu’s antecedents with curiosity.
If you think Naidu’s interest is confined to automobiles, you are wide off the mark. He manufactured UMS brand of radios, tape recorders and music systems in the 1950s which stood against multi national brand names like Murphy, Ekco, GEC and Bush. He developed modern cameras in an era when Indians had to content with the Click-III brand for decades. When the Government denied him permission to manufacture the indigenous cars which he had developed, Naidu brought in Mercedez Benz to India as a collaborator for making the Mercedes in India. The Germans agreed to come on one condition. Naidu should be the chairman of the joint venture. But the Government of India thought otherwise. Naidu was waging a legal battle against the Income Tax department for slapping him with taxes for a motor mechanic training school launched by him. “The school was to train mechanics and drivers of the UMS and other companies owned by him. His argument was that why should tax be paid for the school since the intention was to train and educate people. It was not an institution set up with the motive of making money,” reminiscenceS Gopal. He said the Mercedes Benz headquarters in Germany has preserved the original documents the company had signed with his late father.
The Ge Dee Naidu industrial museum is a repository of the innovative products developed by Naidu. This range from shaving razors to paper clips and it is certain that even a mediocre person will get a big jolt from the exhibits.
Whatever Naidu had told his son Gopal as his messages have been prominently displayed in the museum. “No person or institution can give complete knowledge to become an engineer or scientist. You must learn and do it yourself,” Naidu had told Gopal.
Naidu had another message to the world which he too had practised in his life. “learn for 25 years, though not in school alone. Earn for 25 years. Spend what I have learnt and earned after these 50 years for the welfare of others,” was the doyen’s message.
Of all the institutions set up by his father, Gopal rates the Ge Dee Institute of Technology as the standing monument of Naidu’s greatness. “Every year 100 students pass out from this institute after four years of intense training. All of them are absorbed by global auto giants in India and abroad. That’s a tradition we continue even today. Train youngsters in skill development,” explained Gopal. The Institute has a curriculum followed in Germany’s technology institutes. “We award the diploma issued by the Government of Germany,” said N Ramaraj, assistant general manager (operations) UMS Technologies.
The replicas of Benz Motorwagen and Ford Quadracycle were designed and developed by the students of the institute as part of their project work. “It’s the kind of training we impart,” said Gopal. He said the challenge is not in designing or developing modern cars: “The best of the cars have been already designed and made. The challenge lies in providing the best of the machines to the students to get the best out of them.
It may sound strange that GD Naidu, a nationalist to the core passed away unsung and unrecognised. “He surely deserved a Bharat Ratna. We have to celebrate his life as that was the great message he left behind…to be emulated by the Gen Next,” said Kalyanaraman. A trip to Coimbatore will never be complete without a visit to Ge Dee Museums. One is taken for a trip which explains the evolution of not only automobiles but everything connected with engineering. Some of the exotic models of car as well as the history of paper clips; you ask for anything, it is there in this museum. It is a treasure house of knowledge and information. And people like GD Naidu are born once in a million years.
And that’s the reason why these exhibits could be used to promote the “Make in India” concept in a big way. Some kind of mobile exhibition to showcase to the world the quality of the stuff made in India by a real action hero of yesteryears.
