EARLY LIFE

• Laxmanrao Kashinath Kirloskar (20 June 1869 – 26 September 1956) was the founder of the Kirloskar Group and the township of Kirloskarwadi, amongst India’s first industrial townships.
• He was an entrepreneur who had a love for machines and was passionate about manufacturing newer tools to ease man’s life. He also had an ability to grab business opportunities at the right time.
• Laxmanrao, was a Maharashtrian Brahmin and his father Kashinathpant was a Vedant-Pandit. Therefore, the society also expected Laxmanrao to follow in the foot steps of his father. However, he broke away from the traditions and entered the field of engineering and technology.
• Laxmanrao was fond of two things: mechanical objects and painting. Against his father’s wish and with financial support from his eldest brother Ramuanna, Laxmanrao joined J J School of Art in Bombay in 1885.

RISING

• This skill came handy and lead him to a position of Assistant Teacher of Mechanical Drawing at Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute (VJTI) on a salary of Rs. 45 per month.
  
• The Kirloskar saga began in 1888 when Laxmanrao Kirloskar set up a small bicycle repair shop  at Belgaum (now Belagavi)and later Laxmanrao and his brothers set up a model industrial colony called ‘Kirloskravadi’ India’s first industrial township.

KIRLOSKARWADI

•  In January 1910 when the Kirloskar were being ousted from Belgaum to make room for a new suburb, they found themselves in dire need of a place to live and work and hence the birth of Kirloskravadi.
• later Laxmanrao and his brothers set up a model industrial colony called ‘Kirloskravadi’ India’s first industrial township. In January 1910 when the Kirloskar were being ousted from Belgaum to make room for a new suburb, they found themselves in dire need of a place to live and work and hence the birth of Kirloskravadi.

KIRLOSKARWADI

•  Driven by his faith in human ability, Laxmanrao banded together 25 workers and their families and succeeded in transforming the barren expanse into his dream village. Ramuanna, Laxmanrao’s brother, planned and administered the township, Shamburao Jambhekar doubled as an engineer and all-around healing man.
• K.K.Kulkarni, an unsuccessful student, became a manager, treasurer, and odd jobs man, Mangeshrao Rege was the clerk and chief accountant, Anantrao Phalnikar, a school drop-out flowered into an imaginative engineer.
• Such was Laxmanrao’s faith in the human being that, Tukaram Ramoshi and Pirya Mang, both convicted dacoits, became the trusted guards of Kirloskarvadi! Superstitious farmers were extremely hard to convince and Laxmanrao Kirloskar took two years to sell his first iron ploughs.

ENGINEERING

•  A man who believed that an understanding of one’s environment and reality was essential to the manufacture of path-breaking industrial implements.
• From this steadfast belief was born the iron plough, the first Kirloskar product. Originally intended as an essential aid to agriculture, the plough soon became an icon of reform and revolution.
• Laxmanrao was married to Radhabai and had five children with her, sons Shantanurao, Rajaram, Prabhakar, Ravindra and a daughter. His wife died in 1933

KIRLOSKAR GROUP

•  In 1901, he introduced his first product, the chaff cutter. The company, Kirloskar Brothers, which was the genesis of the $ 2.1 billion Kirloskar Group, brought out its second product, the iron plough, in 1903.
• On January 15, 1920, Kirloskar Brothers was officially registered as a legal entity, Kirloskar Brothers Limited.
•  KBL, the flagship of the $ 2.1 billion Kirloskar Group, is today one of the most admired engineering firms both in India and the world. Synonymous with pumps, KBL is a global leader in fluid pumping technology. It has 18 manufacturing facilities supplying to more than 165 countries spanning across more than eight sectors, including power, oil & gas industry, building & construction, irrigation, marine & defence, and retail pumps. It has an 80 percent market share in the UK’s water companies, and is also Britain’s largest pump manufacturer through its subsidiary, SPP Pumps.

KIRLOSKAR GROUP

• Shri Laxmanrao Kirloskar was not only an industrialist but also a great social reformer. When blind orthodoxy was rampant in rural area, he advocated the removal of untouchability. He banned untouchability in the township that he had established at Kirloskarvadi.
• He believed in social reform and trusted in the goodness of man. He employed ex-convicts as night watchman.