GD Naidu (1893-1974) was an Indian engineer, inventor and businessman. He is known as the “Edison of India” and the “wealth creator of Coimbatore”. After dropping out of school, GD Naidu made notable contributions in the fields of electrical, mechanical, agricultural and automotive engineering. He died in 1974 at the age of 80.
Wiki/Biography
Gopalaswamy Doraiswamy Naidu was born on Thursday, March 23, 1893, in Kalangal village, Coimbatore district, Madras district, British India (now India Tamil Nadu) at the age of 80. His zodiac sign is Aries. When he was in school, he didn’t like classes. He often got into trouble for not attending class, and as a result, he dropped out of school in the third grade. Later, he started working in a cotton gin factory in a village near Surur. Once, while working on his father’s farmland, he saw a British revenue official’s 1912 Rudge motorcycle and was fascinated by the bike; he was 16 years old at the time. So, he left Kalangal village and moved to Coimbatore to earn money.
GD Naidu when he was young
appearance
Height (approximately): 5′ 9″
Hair color: salt and pepper (semi-bald)
Eye color: black
family
GD Naidu was born into a Telugu farmer family in Kalangal village, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.
Parents and siblings
his father gopal samy, Is a farmer.
wife and children
His wife’s name is Ranganayakiammal.
GD Naidu and his wife
He has a son named GD Gopal.
GD Naidu’s son GD Gopal
He also has two grandsons named GD Rajkumar and Shantini. Shantini owns the Regent Hotel Coimbatore.
GD Naidu’s grandson GD Rajkumar
Profession
waiter
After dropping out of school, he worked as a waiter in a hotel in Coimbatore for more than three years to save money to buy a motorcycle. He disassembled motorcycles and reassembled them, after which he became a mechanic.
GD Naidu’s first motorcycle
merchant
In 1920, he purchased a motor coach and started a transportation business called Universal Motor Services (UMS). He started transport business between the cities of Pollachi and Palani in Tamil Nadu. A few years later, his company Universal Motor Services (UMS) became one of the top companies in India with a public transport fleet. By 1933, he owned 280 buses.
politician
In 1936, he ran in the provincial election. However, he lost the election.
inventor
In 1937, he collaborated with electrical engineer D. Balasundaram Naidu to create India’s first indigenous electric motor. Later, he invented the first electric shaver, called “Rasant”, whose electric motor worked on dry batteries.
The world’s first electric shaver
He invented about 100 gadgets, including ultra-thin razor blades, film camera distance adjusters, juicers, tamperers, proof ballots, tape recorders and kerosene fans. In 1935, he traveled to London, England, to photograph the funeral of King George V. He captured many celebrities on camera, including Adolf Hitler, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawahar Lal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose.
Photo of Adolf Hitler taken by GD Naidu in 1936
In 1936, he invented the voting machine. In 1941, he revealed that he could build a five-tube radio in India for only 70 rupees. In 1941, he established a 40-acre farm at Podhanur where he studied various crops. He made significant contributions to the agricultural field by discovering new varieties of cotton, corn, and papaya. The famous Indian physicist CV Raman and the famous Indian civil engineer M. Visvesvaraya once visited his farm.
GD Naidu and CV Raman
In 1952, he launched a two-seater petrol engine car priced at just Rs 2,000. Production had to be halted as the government did not grant the necessary licenses to build the engine cars. He was also known for building affordable housing. He once built a house that took only about eight hours from foundation to completion. Many of these houses were built in 1967-68.
Low cost housing construction training center in coimbatore
Since he was interested in the Siddha system of medicine, he also did many experiments in the medical field. He was one of the first people in India to invent the ballpoint pen, ballpoint pen refills and carbon paper.
philanthropist
In 1944, GD Naidu started providing research funding for research fellowships. He also initiated welfare schemes for employees and downtrodden sections of society. In 1945, he established India’s first polytechnic, Arthur Hope Polytechnic, in Coimbatore and became its first principal. In the same year, he founded an engineering college, the Arthur Hope College of Engineering, and served as its first president.
Arthur Hope College of Engineering, Coimbatore
The British government did not accept Naidu’s suggestion to shorten the four-year course to two years as it was a waste of students’ time, and he resigned as principal. In 1946, he founded the Industrial Labor Welfare Society (now known as GD Naidu Charity Society) to provide practical training to students and prepare them for employment. During the 1950s and 1960s, he provided employment opportunities to many job seekers in engineering and other fields.
in mass media
On August 9, 2019, the biopic “GD Naidu – Edison of India” won the Best Technology Film Award at the 66th National Film Awards. The documentary was screened at the German Indian Film Festival 2019 and many other places.
Poster of the 2019 documentary “GD Naidu – Edison of India”
In April 2023, Indian actor and director R. Madhavan revealed that he will direct and star in a biopic based on the life story of GD Naidu.
heritage
- Guangdong Naidu Science Popularization Museum Industrial Exhibition was founded in 1967.
Industrial Exhibition at GD Naidu Science Museum, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu
- The Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) has established the GD Naidu Young Scientist Award in recognition of GD Naidu. The award is awarded to students working in the field of mechanical engineering and research.
- Makkal Sinthanai Peravai, a non-profit public organization based in Erode, Tamil Nadu, presents the annual award in the name of GD Naidu to an outstanding young researcher working in India.
die
He died of age-related illnesses on Friday, January 4, 1974, at the age of 80.
Facts/Trivia
- GD Naidu is also known as “Adhisaya Manidhar” which means “One of Miracles”.
- He was the first Indian businessman to employ a British person in his company.
- He is an avid photographer. He visited Germany and spent a lot of time in the factories of Leica, Minox, Rollei and other camera manufacturing companies.
- His company, UMS Razor Company, won the third prize for razor blades at an exhibition in Leipzig, Germany.
The third prize was won by UMS Razor Company
- Nobel Prize winner in physics CV Raman praised GD Naidu’s achievements in an interview in 1950 and said:
It would require a more capable pen than mine to sketch in a few words the image of the illustrious personality of Mr. GD Naidu and to indicate his great character and manifold achievements. ”
- He had received a Rolls-Royce car as a gift and was the only person in India to own one at that time.
GD Naidu with dismantled Rolls-Royce 20 HP
- He is vegetarian.
- His grandson GD Rajkumar owns Geedee Industries, which is named after GD Naidu.
- His daughter-in-law, Chandra Gopal, runs GD Matriculation High School and GEDEE Public School in Coimbatore, both of which are named after GD Naidu.
- He is a vintage car enthusiast and has a large collection of vintage cars, including a Mercedes-Benz Motorwagon, Ford T, Volkswagen Beetle, Citroën – 2 CV and Mini. On April 27, 2015, his son GD Gopal inaugurated the Jidi Automobile Museum in memory of his father.
GeDee Automobile Museum, Coimbatore
- In 2015, MA Palaniappan published a Tamil book “Athisaya Vignani GD Naidu” based on the life story of GD Naidu.
Poster of Tamil book “Athisaya Vignani GD Naidu”
- He used to smoke occasionally.
GD Naidu smokes
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education