Narottam Morarjee

Narottam Morarjee (1877-1929) was an eminent Indian businessperson with major interests in shipping and textiles.^[1][2]

Narottam Morarjee was born on April 2, 1877 at Porbandar. His father Seth Morarjee Goculdas was a pioneering textile magnate. He studied at Elphinstone College. He started managing two mills- Morarjee Goculdas Mill of Bombay and Sholapur Mill of Sholapur while studying.^[3]

Narottam Morarjee later came into close contact with Mahatma Gandhi, Dr, Annie Besant, Dadabhai Naoroji, Rabindranath Tagore, Sarojini Naidu and Motilal Nehru.

Narottam Morarjee joined hands with Walchand Hirachand, to finance and establish The Scindia Steam Navigation Company Ltd. along with another Gujarati businessman Kilachand Devchand, which was founded on March 27, 1919. On April 5, 1919, Scindia's first ship s.s. LOYALTY sailed from Bombay to the United Kingdom and unfurled the flag of Indian shipping in international waters.

Narottam Morarjee died on November 5, 1929. Walchand Hirachand, ran some of his ventures till a year before, he died in 1953. Narottam Morarjee's son Shantikumar^[4] filled in posts of his father. But the group was indebted with liabilities and ultimately, Morarjee Goculdas Mill was taken over by Seth Piramal Chaturbhuj, patriarch of the Piramal family. While, after death of Walchand in 1953, the Scindia Shipping was completely taken over by Narottam Morajee group but shipping business, could not survive the changes and stopped doing business. Scindia Shipyard, a subsidiary of Scindia Steamship, in which Narottam Morajee, Walchand & Kilachands had stakes was nationalized by government in 1961.

The Government of India issued a postage stamp in his honor in 1977. ^[2]

Further, Government of India, established under the joint auspices of the Government of India and Indian Shipping Industry at Mumbai for Diploma courses in Shipping Management, which has been named Narottam Morarjee Institute of Shipping, after him.^[5]

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