Velagapudi Ramakrishna was an Indian Civil Service (ICS) officer, industrialist, and philanthropist. He started the KCP group of companies in 1941 with a co-operative sugar factory in Andhra Pradesh [1]. His pioneering industrializing efforts in the erstwhile Madras State are commendable.
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Ramakrishna was born in 1896 in the village Bellamvaripalem (Nagaram mandal, near Repalle) in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, India. He studied at Oxford University and acquired B.Sc. and M.A. degrees. His father (pre-adoption surname: Katragadda) originally came from Tellapadu, Maddipadu Mandal, in Prakasam District.
He was survived by two sons and a daughter: V. Maruthi Rao, V. Lakshmana Dutt, and Rajeshwari Ramakrishnan.[2]
The Velagapudi Ramakrishna Siddhartha Engineering College, near Vijayawada has been posthumously named after him.[3]
He also funded the VSR & NVR College[4] in Tenali and the Sri Velagapudi Ramakrishna Memorial College [5] in Nagaram, Guntur district.
The Andhra Chamber of Commerce building in Chennai [6] has also been named after Velagapudi Ramakrishna.
V Ramakrishna Polytechnic in Thiruvottiyur, Near Chennai is an institution within KCP campus and is named in memory of Velagapudi Ramakrishna