Nadar Community : Flourishing in Business for years

V Balasubramanian

This is part of my inspiring series on business leaders. In my long career as a business journalist, I have interacted with several business leaders and  entrepreneurs. If there is one community from Tamil Nadu, which has been flourishing in business for decades, it is the highly powerful Nadar community.
I can say Nadars are by far one of  the flourishing richest business communities in India.

They are called Tamil Marvaris.  If Nadars are  dominating for years  the domestic trade and export and import, they have also established leading manufacturing companies.  You can see them running from a pan shop to  big show room.  Known for their hard work, they employ largely their loyal  community people.

Nadar traders play a major role in retail and wholesale trade, transporting and selling materials, products and promoting  brands. They dominate trading in commodity products like building materials, steel, hardware, auto parts,  groceries, provisions, household appliances, durables,  fruits& vegetables, textiles, fashion garments.

Doing business is in their blood. For generations the families are known for running the business. After their higher education, the younger generation is increasingly showing interest to run the family business.

It has also produced political stalwarts. In my school days, I remember rushing to see the great people's leader and former CM, Thiru K Kamarajar from the Nadar community.  I was studying in K G S high school, Aduthurai and he came there to address a public meeting. It was my great pleasure to listen to his speech.  I used to pen poems about him. The State is yet to see a great leader like him. 

I admire Nadar community for their patriotism, nationalism, business acumen, hardwork, passion for their work, compassion for doing good to poor and weakers sections through charity. They believe in coming up life through hard work. Other communities have to learn a lot from Nadars in bettering their life through economic empowerment.

Nadars have a unique  community network called Nadar Mahimai, which has built a number of Marriage halls and community centres. Nadar Mahajana Sangam is the oldest body representing the interest of community. It only founded Tamilnad mercantile bank. The community people manages a number of educational institutions,  Worship places, hospitals.

The community is highly mobile, they have set their foot in all parts of the country and world.

Coming to my mind are the following Leading Nadar Businessmen\Groups. If I have missed out some groups, i may be excused:

1. TN Mercantile Bank- one of the oldest institutions promoted by Nadars in 1921
2. HCL promoter Shiv Nadar, SSN college-   Well known face of the community. He has been divesting  his stake to use the money for charitable activities. HCL is a Fast growing IT company after top players like TCS, Infosys, Wipro. It has the highest market cap among listed entities of nadar run companies.
3. Pioneer Asia group- Run by brothers S Annamalai and S Maheswaran and their families. Their brother,  S Ashok was the well known face of the group but  his untimely death six months ago came a rude shock. Their father,  Sankaralingam Nadar is one of the founders of Sivakasi match industry along with Ayya nadar. The group has big interest in mechanised match business, fire works, printing, chemicals, textiles, wind energy, IT park ( Tamarai IT park) in Chennai. Also overseas ventures

4. Hatsun Agro- listed company, promoted by  R Chandramohan,  India’s largest private Milk dairy, Arun Ice cream  has been  re branded with big plans for expansion.

5. Edible Oil: Kaleeswari oil mill ( Munswamy and his son), the Rs 1000 cr company has invested heavily on ERP; The other big names are  Idayam ( Muthu), VVD ( Vikraman and son)

6. Consumer goods, jewellery: Sivanesan & company ( Premier brands) (Sivanesan), Vasanth & Co ( Cong ex MLA Vasanthkumar), Saravana selvarathanam, Saravana stores, Rathna stores, Rathna Fan house, VGP group ( pioneers in hire purchase finance) Sellamani & Co, Soundaraja Pandian stores, Sekar emporium.

7. Food , sweets, and restaurant: Saravana Bhavan, Saravana selvarathanam, plus a host of hotels run by the community people. Saravana Bhavan, which has branches abroad, is one brand that has not suffered and doing brisk business notwithstanding  the owner, Rajagopal facing court trials for long.  

8. Media: Daily Thanthi ( Sivanthi Adityan and his son Balasubramanian):  Malai Murasu- B Ramachandra Adityan and his sons. Daily Thanthi is rocking the Tamil daily market as the largest circulated news paper. After FM radio, it has now entered Televison by acquiring the Stake of The Hindu in NDTV-The Hindu. It is said to have a created  new dynamic team for  channel.

9. HR: Ma Foi K Pandiarajan and his wife, Latha Pandian. They are the pioneers in providing HR services. After divesting their stake to foreign partner, the couple is readying to build a new venture and start a B school.  
10. Entertainment: R Sarath Kumar, well known hero, who carved a niche for himself in Tamil cinema. He has given several box office hits, known for his physical fitness, intelligence, secular approach and social service. Active in politics, he was former Rajya Sabha MP and now MLA in TN Assembly.

I feel TN Mercantile  bank is a classic case of an old generation private sector bank fighting against takeover bid for the last 17 years.

In 1994, I broke the news of  Essar  quietly acquiring the bank. Then,   the fight between influential nadar groups  led to Pioneer Asia and others selling their stake to Essar. Essar got almost 67%. but it was challenged by the commununuity, RBI also did not allow Essar to takeover.

Later, NRI Sterling C Sivasankaran got the shares from Essar. He also could not gain control over the bank. Nadar forum purchased a portion of the stake from him. But, still the dispute is not resolved. Amidst the legal war,  the bank business grew manifold  thanks to nadar businessmen and community retaining faith in the bank and not taking away their deposits to another bank. If only  the community leaders end their infighting, the bank has a great future to grow into a big bank in the country with the support of RBI and Government.

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