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Manubhai Shah (1915-2000) was an Indian politician who played an important political and developmental role in independent India for over half a century. He was a Member of Saurashtra Legislative Assembly from 1948 to 1956 and served as Minister of Finance, Planning and Industries, in the State Government, and was Union Cabinet Minister in the governments of Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi〔(Ananth V Krishna, India Since Independence: Making Sense Of Indian Politics, New Delhi, 2011, p 73. )〕 having held portfolios such as industries, commerce and foreign trade. An active social and political worker, Manubhai was an institution builder and initiated a wide range of educational, social, infrastructure, research and industrial institutions in India. ==National politics== Manubhai Shah was a Member of Second and Third Lok Sabha from 1957 to 1967 representing Madhya Saurashtra Parliamentary Constituency of erstwhile Bombay State and Jamnagar Parliamentary Constituency of Gujarat. He was also a Member of Rajya Sabha during 1956-57 and from 1970 to 1976.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://164.100.47.5/Newmembers/mpterms.aspx )〕 During his tenure, he held various portfolios as Union Minister including Industries,〔(Virendra Kumar, Committees and Commissions in India 1947-73, Concept Publications, Delhi, 1978, p 408. )〕 International Trade and Commerce.〔(Newsletter, Volumes 12-14, Bharat Chamber of Commerce, Calcutta, 1965. )〕〔(Foreign Affairs Record 1966, Vol. XII, January 1966, No.1 )〕 Jawaharlal Nehru Prime Minister of India was keen to invite Manubhai to join the central Government of India in Delhi as he had seen Manubhai’s work in Saurashtra. His activities as institution builder were ceaseless, including in the arts, higher education and the industrial sector. He was instrumental in the setting up of nearly 400 industrial estates in the country.〔(Rediff News Report, December 2000. )〕 He was also responsible over five decades for promoting industrial and economic development and setting up of industries of all sizes in India, heavy, medium scale, small scale, cottage and village industries in private as well as public sectors. The 1974 Nobel Prize winner in Economics Gunnar Myrdal quotes Manubhai in his book Asian Drama: "The policy has always been pragmatic … () the prime consideration has always been rapid growth rather than doctrinaire division of spheres. There is so much to be done that whoever can do it always gets encouragement".〔Gunnar Myrdal, Asian Drama – An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations, Vol II, The Twentieth Century Fund Inc, 1968, p 825.〕 Myrdal again quotes Manubhai: "Long run growth of income will proceed fastest if instead of trying to do everything at the same time, we concentrate initially on basic and heavy industry".〔The full quote from Myrdal is as follows: “When Shri Manubhai Shah was Union Minister for International Trade, he stated: "Long run growth of income will proceed fastest if instead of trying to do everything at the same time, we concentrate initially on basic and heavy industry."” Manubhai Shah is quoted from "Centralised Industries", A.I.C.C. Economic Review, 22 August 1962, p 10; cited in Myrdal, ''op. cit.'', 1968, p 821n.〕 Manubhai differed with his ministerial colleagues if he felt it necessary. On one occasion when he was Foreign Minister he had a disagreement with the Commerce Minister on Industrial Licensing Policy,〔(Manisha, Profiles of Indian Prime Ministers, Mittal Publication, New Delhi, 2004, p 37. )〕 but there was also respect for one another and the matter was resolved with Prime Minister Nehru. Another time when Manubhai opposed the move on devaluation〔(R. J. Venkateswaran, Decision-making in Indian economy: role of central government, Himalaya Publishing House, 1986, p 128. )〕〔(B G Verghese, "Enter Mrs G: Madam, Prime Minister, Sir" in First Draft: Witness to the Making of Modern India, Tranquebar Press, New Delhi, 2010. )〕 of the rupee, there were differences with the Finance Minister and Manubhai resigned his portfolio as Industry Minister, later to be persuaded by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to take back his resignation. Manubhai was the pioneer of the first phase of liberalisation in independent India, having set up necessary institutional facilities and having made the process simple and easy to set up industry, to acquire licenses and permits, even for entrepreneurs with limited resources at hand who would otherwise have needed to meet many pecuniary and procedural challenges. He would invite small entrepreneurs as well as established industrialists personally to set up innovative and essential businesses and industrial plants, even if there was disapproval from institutions like the Reserve Bank of India. The Maruti small car project was his brainchild.〔(India Today, 2 April 2012 )〕 His most notable pioneering initiative was the setting up of the Small Industries Development Organisations and the Small Industries Service Institutes (SISI)〔(now SISI across India by the click of a button )〕 which he was determined to create in every State and District of the country (which are now also known as Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises & Development Institutes (MSME-DI)).〔(MSME Gujarat )〕 The first prototypes of these he had already set up as a Minister in the Saurashtra government, such as in Bhavnagar and Rajkot,〔(now Rajkot MSME-DI and SISI )〕 where facilities were provided for starting up small units, procuring loans, providing technical and product advice, skills training, exhibiting and selling of produce through creation of emporiums, bringing together interested potential small entrepreneurs and organising seminars, and even setting up of industrial townships, such as the Bhavnagar Small Industries Association and the Rajkot Bhaktinagar Udyognagar which became forerunners to the SISIs and the Industrial Estates Manubhai helped set up across the country when he became Union Minister for Industries. As such these ideas of economic and industrial development were already conceived by Manubhai when he was in Ferozepur jail. Among the institutions that Manubhai was instrumental in creating are the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation,〔( GIDC website )〕 M P Shah Medical College Jamnagar,〔(M P Shah Medical College )〕 Akhil Bharat Gujarati Samaj, Triveni Kala Sangam, Sardar Patel Vidyalaya School.〔(Sardar Patel Vidyalaya )〕 Myrdal quotes Manubhai as saying: "Practically all of us can do in half the time what we are doing at the moment. This silver lining to the situation, if it could be so called, is that almost extraordinary increase in productivity could be achieved practically in no time at no cost, with almost everybody better off than before. We have only to turn our faces to the sun to see the light".〔Manubhai Shah, "Importance of Industrial productivity," Productivity, Journal of National Productivity Council, Vol 1, No 4, Delhi, April–May, 1960, p 192, cited in Myrdal, ''op. cit.'', 1968, p 1140n.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Manubhai Shah」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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