S. N. N. Sankaralinga Iyer
S.N.N.Sankaralinga Iyer (January 31, 1901 – 1972) was an Indian industrialist, philanthropist and business magnate. He founded India Cements in 1946 and became its first Managing-Director. The corporation later diversified its activities leading to the formation of the Sanmar group.
Life and career
Sankaralinga Iyer was born on 31 January 1901 in Kallidaikurichi. In 1918, at the age of seventeen, he married Pitchumal, and their son, K. S. Narayanan was born in 1919. In 1937, K. S. Narayanan began his career as an agent of the Palghat branch of the Indo-Commercial Bank started by his father and would later, on his father's death, become the Chairman of India Cements and the Sanmar group. Sankaralinga Iyer fathered eight more children - seven sons who entered India Cements and also started their own businesses, and one daughter who married a businessman from Chennai.
Sankaralinga Iyer's first venture, the Indo Commercial Bank, was headquartered at Tirunelveli District, Tamil Nadu. Later, on 25 March 1961 Punjab National Bank would acquire Indo Commercial in a rescue.
Sankaralinga Iyer acquired large tracts of land surrounding Thaazhiyuthu where he set up the first India Cements factory, with the first plant established in the year 1949.
A new township called Sankarnagar was established to house the workers in the plant. India Cements launched its second plant in the 1960s at Sankaridrug in Salem district.