Ramaswamy Venkataraman (, 4 December 1910 – 27 January 2009), also known as R. Venkataraman, was an Indian lawyer, independence activist and politician who served as a union minister and as the vice president of india and president of India.
Venkataraman was born in Rajamadam village in Tanjore district, Madras Presidency. He studied law and practised in the Madras High Court and the Supreme Court of India. In his youth, he was an activist for the Indian independence movement, and he participated in the Quit India Movement. He was appointed as the member of the Constituent Assembly and the provisional cabinet. He was elected to the Lok Sabha four times and served as Union Finance Minister and Defence Minister. In 1984, he was elected as the vice president of India and in 1987, he became the president of India and served from 1987 to 1992. He also served as a state minister under K. Kamaraj and M. Bhaktavatsalam. He is referred to as the Father of Industrialisation of Tamilnadu
Venkataraman was born in a Tamil Brahmin family in Rajamadam village near Pattukottai, Tanjore district in Madras Presidency, British India. He had his school education in Govt Boys Higher Secondary School, Pattukottai and undergraduation in National College, Tiruchirappalli.
Educated locally and in the city of Madras (now Chennai), Venkataraman obtained his master's degree in economics from Loyola College, Madras. He later qualified in Law from the Law College, Madras. Venkataraman was enrolled in the Madras High Court in 1935 and in the Supreme Court in 1951.
While practising law, Venkataraman was drawn into the movement for India's freedom from Britain's colonial subjugation. His active participation in the Indian National Congress's celebrated resistance to the British Government, the Quit India Movement of 1942, resulted in his detention for two years under the Defence of India Rules. Venkataraman's interest in the law continued during this period. In 1946, when the transfer of power from British to Indian hands was imminent, the Government of India included him in the panel of lawyers sent to Malaya and Singapore to defend Indian nationals charged with offences of collaboration during the Japanese occupation of those two places. In the years 1947 to 1950, Venkataraman served as Secretary of the Madras Provincial Bar Federation.
Law and trade activity led to Venkataraman's increasing association with politics. He was a member of constituent assembly that drafted India's constitution. In 1950, he was elected to free India's Provisional Parliament (1950–1952) and to the First Parliament (1952–1957). During his term of legislative activity, Venkataraman attended the 1952 Session of the Metal Trades Committee of International Labour Organisation as a workers' delegate. He was a member of the Indian Parliamentary Delegation to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in New Zealand. Venkataraman was also Secretary to the Congress Parliamentary Party in 1953–1954.
Venkatraman was reelected to Parliament from Thanjavur in the general election of 1957 with an improved majority of 37,000 votes. He however resigned the seat and joined the Madras government at the invitation of its Chief Minister, K. Kamaraj. Venkataraman was sworn in as Minister for Industries on 26 April 1957 and was allotted several ministries including those of Labour and Co-operation, Commercial Taxes and Nationalised Transport, Textiles, Mines and Minerals and Companies and was elected to the Madras Legislative Council in the biennial elections conducted in March 1958.
In the assembly election of 1962, the Congress Party under K Kamaraj was returned to power. Venkataraman was retained as minister in charge of the same ministries during the Kamaraj Ministry which lasted 2 October 1963 and under Chief Minister M. Bhaktavatsalam who succeeded Kamaraj. Venkataraman himself was sworn in as Minister in the Bhaktavatsalam Ministry only on 23 October 1963, as he was in New York City to attend the session of the United Nations Administrative Tribunal. Venkataraman was reelected to the Council in the biennial elections of March 1964 and remained the leader of the house in the council until after the assembly elections of 1967.
As Minister of Industries, Venkataraman proved to be an able administrator who ushered in a period of industrial development in Madras. He championed the idea of industrial estates, the first of which was established at Guindy, and succeeded in getting investments in major public sector undertakings such as the Integral Coach Factory, Neyveli Lignite Corporation and the Heavy Vehicles Factory. Venkataraman persuaded the TVS Group to set up a factory at Padi and several other private companies including Ashok Leyland, Hindustan Motors and Enfield established their automobile factories in Madras during this time. Tamil Nadu's industrialization has been widely credited to steps initiated during Venkataraman's decade as the state's industries minister and he has been described as the "father of industrialization" in Tamil Nadu.
In 1967, Venkataraman contested the parliamentary election from Thanjavur but lost to the D.S. Gopalar of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. In the assembly election of 1967, the Congress was routed by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. C. N. Annadurai, the DMK's leader in the Council became Chief Minister and Venkataraman the leader of the opposition in the council until his resignation from the Council in August 1967.
Venkataraman was appointed a member of the Planning Commission in July, 1967 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and held charge of industry, labour, power, transport, communications and railways. In 1970, the Commission on Major Ports headed by Venkataraman submitted its report to the Government. This was the first study to be made of the integrated function and development of major ports in India. He resigned from the Planning Commission in 1971.
In 1977, Venkataraman was elected to the Lok Sabha from Madras (South) Constituency and served as an Opposition Member of Parliament and Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee.
Venkataraman was also, variously, a member of the Political Affairs Committee and the Economic Affairs Committee of the Union Cabinet; Governor, International Monetary Fund, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the Asian Development Bank. Venkataraman was a Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly in 1953, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1959, 1960 and 1961. He was Leader of the Indian Delegation to the 42nd Session of the International Labour Conference at Geneva (1958) and represented India in the Inter Parliamentary Conference in Vienna (1978). He was a member of the United Nations Administrative Tribunal from 1955 to 1979 and was its president from 1968 to 1979.
Venkataraman was re-elected to the Lok Sabha from the Madras South constituency in the 1980 general election with an improved majority of over 120,000 votes. He was sworn in as Cabinet Minister in charge of Finance in the Indira Gandhi ministry on 14 January 1980. During January to April, 1980 he was also Minister of Industry. As finance minister, Venkataraman presented the interim and final budgets for 1980 and the budget in 1981. Venkataraman's budget in 1981 was seen as favouring the middle class and industry, focusing on improving growth and savings in the economy while raising customs duty on all imported goods to raise revenue. In the same year, he introduced a bill for the establishment of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development which was passed by Parliament.
When allegations of corruption were raised against the Congress Party and the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, A. R. Antulay regarding the collection of funds by a trust named after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, she tasked Venkataraman with defending the government in debates on the matter in Parliament. Although members of the opposition attempted to introduce privilege motions against Venkatraman on the grounds that he had misled parliament, these were rejected by the presiding officers in both houses of parliament. In his interventions, Venkataraman sought to dissociate the Prime Minister from the activities of Antulay and he rejected the opposition's demand for a probe arguing that no improprieties had been committed by the trust to warrant an inquiry.