[1]“I am only 46. I still have another 20 years to go before I meet all my goals. This is only a warm-up! " That's Murugesh Rudrappa Nirani, Industries Minister in the Sadananda Gowda government, first-generation entrepreneur turned successful industrialist, and the driving force behind GIM 2012.
“GIM is not just about investments and industries alone. It is about nurturing a generation of young entrepreneurs," says Nirani, son of a sugarcane farmer who did not finish school but saw his son graduate from engineering college and set up a string of businesses that turned him into a powerhouse, the Sharad Pawar of Bagalkot.
What sparked off as a youthful challenge to outdo role model, then Congress MP from Bagalkot S.T. Patil, set him on the path to success.
“I accomplished everything Patil had done and overtook him by becoming a civil engineer, a successful industrialist and Cabinet minister. My house is twice the size of his," crowed Nirani.
Born to Rudrappa and Sushilamma at Basav Hanchnal in Bilgi taluk of Bagalkot district, Nirani was always a go-getter.
Starting a tractor-trailer manufacturing unit at Mudhol in 1996, in 1997, he established a sugar factory near Mudhol, which is now the single biggest sugar factory in India, while his sugar industry provides direct employment to 2,000 youth and helps 40,000 sugarcane growers of Bijapur and Bagalkot districts.
Turning around a defunct cement factory in Halaki-Ningapur village of Mudhol in 2001, set off the setting up of a string of cement factories at Kunchipur in Chitradurga, a cooperative bank and an educational trust in Hubli-Dharwad and now a media house.
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