FE Dinshaw, Framroze Edulji Dinshaw, was the second son of the Karachi landowner and philanthropist Seth Edulji Dinshaw, and was one of prepartition India's most prominent businessmen and lawyers. He died in January 1936.
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FE Dinshaw took over and expanded upon his father's landholdings in Mumbai. The FE Dinshaw Estate is today the largest private landowner in Mumbai, with a total holding of 2,200 acres.[1] It is today administered by industrialist Nusli Wadia[2]
FE Dinshaw played a key role in the foundation of the Indian cement business, pioneering a merger between ten companies owned by Tata, Khatau, Killick Nixon and Dinshaw, so as to form Associated Cement Companies Limited.[3]
He was closely associated with the Tata Group. By the time of his death, he owned some 12.5% of the group, a shareholding now owned by Indian billionaire Pallonji Mistry.[4] FE Dinshaw's residence in Pune, which was designed by the architect George Wittet, is now the Tata Management Training Centre.[5]
In addition to his landowning and industrial endeavours, FE Dinshaw was the financial advisor to the Maharajas of Gwalior.[6]
FE Dinshaw played a key role in the development of the Bombay Talkies, the most modern film studio in India in the 1930s. It was his summer mansion in suburban Mumbai which was the first venue for the studios, and he contributed capital to the project.[7]
In 1967, the Indian Merchants' Chamber set up the FE Dinshaw Commercial & Financial Reference Library in order to commemorate his contribution to Indian industry.[8] The library is located at 78, Veer Nariman Road, behind Churchgate Station in Mumbai. It is funded by the FE Dinshaw Memorial Trust.
He had one son, Edulji F. Dinshaw, and two daughters, Bachoobai and Manekbai. Edulji and Bachoo settled on Fifth Avenue in New York in the 1940s.