B. G.

Shirke
A successful businessman who imprinted the Marathi mark on the industrial field through his own determination and strength Birth: 01 August 1917 Tremendous determination, sincere effort and hard work, endurance, perseverance, huge self confidence, optimism, exuberance, concern for society and dislike towards corruption; these are only a few of the qualities of the renowned construction businessman B. G. Shirke. Apart from these, his minute planning, professional attitude and great creative strength have made him an excellent industrialist. Baburao Govindrao Shirke was born in the small village of Pasarni in the district of Satara. Hailing from such a small and poor village didnt stop him from getting educated. His urge for learning and determination to succeed helped him complete his education on an earn-and-learn principle. He decided to become a civil engineer when he realised that civil engineering is related to all natural phenomena and objects and hence their development, and that the science of foundation building is the base of any kind of construction and development. His dream to become a civil engineer became a reality on the 6th of June, 1943, when he received his degree in engineering. B. G. Shirke became the first engineer from an area like Pasarni-Wai in Satara, where there was no tradition of higher education preceding him. His straightforwardness and courageousness helped him greatly during his learning years and later in business too. He always wished to start his own company rather than do service. He worked for short stints at several companies big and small in order to gain the necessary experience for business. Then on the auspicious day of Dasra on the 9th of September, 1944, this farmers son, having virtually no family tradition of business or entrepreneurship and without any external financial support, started his own company, confident in his own determination and knowledge. He named it Supreme Constructions. Initially he would commute everywhere on his bicycle. In his life, just as he faced hardships, so did he gain from extreme good luck. Immediately after starting the company, he was lucky to come across a military officer who recognised his honesty and capacity for hard work and gave him military building tenders for construction in 1944. Later he received the tender to build Kolhapurs Jail house in 1945. He completed this with great efficiency and became widely known as a prominent businessman.

Shirkes marriage too was a revolutionary event in his life. Shirke got married at the age of 29 to Vijaya Shinde, who was 24 then. In those times, it was extremely difficult to get married at what was considered to be a very late age in the Maratha community. She supported him throughout his life as an able advisor. It was her unflinching stance and appropriate advice on occasion that kept him away from politics and corruption. She was instrumental in the founding of the company Siporex , a company manufacturing building material. Mr. Shirke many a times almost decided to get out of the construction business due to the frustrations involved in the field. It was her emotional support to Mr. Shirke that helped him get over his frustrations. His business prospered after 1953, when he built the first Chemistry department building at the Pune University campus and the dam at Veer. Between 1962 and 1981, Shantanurao Kirloskar handed all the construction projects of Kirloskar Industries in Pune to B. G. Shirke. B. G. Shrike has learned the economics of construction that any job should be of excellent quality and executed on time. It is evident from Shrikes work that not only did he put deep thought into his own field of work but also studied the education system, government policies, growing corruption in society, outlook towards business etc. With respect to important social issues, national issues, or critical policy matters, Shirke writes to leaders and politicians in the State as well as in the Centre (Delhi) expressing his frank stand on it. This habit helped him during a meeting once with the erstwhile Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, who had read some of his letters. He was and is extremely resentful of the black money that is generated in the construction industry, and which is responsible for the disruption in the country.

Shirke earned an international reputation as a successful businessman. But while earning this reputation and especially while establishing Siporex as a world renowned company, he had to face umpteen hurdles. He had to bear with all kinds of speed breakers such as the conflicts with the officials, government procedures and the corruption in it, technical difficulties, large monetary requirements, and infinite physical and mental efforts. After resolving several obstacles like the problems of space, capital and licenses, he officially registered his company in 1972. The first international order that the company got was from a big company in Dubai in 1974. The Marathi employees from Siporex have built several Mosques and hundreds of houses in Dubai since then. Despite scaling new heights in success, Shirke never forgot his roots. At least one person from every household in his village of Pasarni has been employed at Shirkes ventures abroad. All of these employees gave heavy grants to the educational institutions that Shirke started in Pasarni. It is with their help that Shirke constructed the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Kridanagari(Games Village) at Balewadi near Pune for the National Games in 1994, at the ripe age of 75. This games village is one of its kind in the world, unique for being able to accommodate 90% of the Olympic level games on its campus. This huge task of building the entire complex with all the infrastructure and amenities was completed within just one year. Shirke was deeply satisfied and mentally gratified by this project.

Shirke did not just want to become a successful businessman; he wanted to revolutionize the construction industry by incorporating newer technology, equipment and methods. He wanted to bring in modernity and morality in his business, and

discard outdated ways of work and policies. He battled for thirty years with prevalent orthodox practices in society and government. In 1984, Chief Minister of Maharashtra Vasantdada Patil took a decision officially towards incorporating Shirkes modern technology and ideas for the benefit of the State. This was met with strong opposition and for several years Shirke had to take recourse of the legal system for thirteen years to get this decision implemented. He won the case ultimately and was given innumerable tenders for the construction of buildings for the State electricity board, the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, the Defence Ministry and the Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh governments. Some government organisations though put a lot of obstacles in his path. After all these experiences he says, Dishonesty has grown ever since businessmen who were heirs to business have established their business on the strength of money, with a result that natural entrepreneurs do not get scope. Shirke has also suggested changes in the current education system to sustain oneself in the modern age. He feels that there is no substitute to knowledge and capability if one has to become successful. He also believes that the Marathi youth should shed off the nine-to-five limitation of their talents and become enterprising and innovative in their approach. Although Marathi people are leading in various walks of life, they still have a long way to go with respect to entrepreneurship and trade. If the Marathi people take into their stride the risks involved and are tenacious and determined to work hard, then will certainly succeed in business too. He believes that for a community to progress, it has to embrace trade and entrepreneurship as a part of their culture.

Shirke, in his concise autobiography Jidda (resolve, tenacity), has challenged the youth of the Maharashtra State, which has a conducive environment, excellent facilities, most amenities, several concessions and a good ambience for trade and commerce, to create a new culture of entrepreneurship. Shirke presents his ideas before the society from time to time, and even today is a living example of a doer who also implements his own ideas.

B. G. Shirke Construction Technology Private Limited (BGSCTPL), formerly known as B. G. Shirke & Company, was established in 1944 by its Founder Chairman, Mr. B. G. Shirke. BGSCTPL is a multi-disciplinary civil, mechanical and electrical engineering consortium having international technology tie-ups and over 9,000 workforce.

It is a vibrant, dynamic and integral part of modern India, significantly contributing to industrial, economic and social progress. BGSCTPL also plays an active role in protecting and preserving the countrys eco-systems its forests and waterways. Company is well established in the civil engineering field for over 60 years.

BGSCTPL also pioneered and patented the 3-S system in India a system using partial pre-cast structural components, such as.....