The Knight Commander of The Indian Empire medal

In 1915, while he was the Diwan of Mysore, Visvesvaraya was made Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire by the British for his myriad contributions to the public good. After India attained independence, Sir M. Visvesvaraya was given the nation’s highest honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 1955.

Sir M.V. was honoured with honorary membership of the international Institution of Civil Engineers (based in London) and a fellowship of the Indian Institute of Science (based in Bangalore). He was also awarded several honorary doctoral degrees like D.Sc., LL.D., D.Litt. from various universities in India. He was president of the 1923 Session of the Indian Science Congress. Sir MV was also awarded honorary Membership of London Institution of Civil Engineers for an unbroken period of 50 years.

Shri M. Visvesvaraya was born in a small village in Chikkaballapur Taluk of Kolar District in September 1861. In February 1884, on completion of his education in Engineering in the Poona College of Science, he was appointed Assistant Engineer in the Public Works Department of the Bombay Government.

The career of Shri Visvesvaraya has been unusually varied and extensive. He has been in active service of some kind or other for the last 70 years. As an Irrigation Engineer he was responsible for the designing and construction of dams and reservoirs and in the capacity of Consulting Engineer and adviser, served in a number of Indian States, including Baroda, Gwalior, Indore, Bhopal and Kolhapur, and municipalities and corporations such as Bombay, Karachi and Nagpur.

The Bharat Ratna medal

In 1909, he was appointed Chief Engineer to the Mysore Government; three years later, he became Dewan of Mysore, an appointment which he held with conspicuous ability for six years. He was reponsible for the starting of the Mysore University, Mysore Bank, the Bhadravathy Iron and Steel Works and the Krishnarajasagar Dam. After retirement, he served for a period of seven years as Chairman of the Board of Management of the Mysore Iron and Steel Works. He found Sri Jayachamarajendra Occupational Institute at Bangalore, described by Dr. Radhakrishnan’s Commission as one of the best in India.

He has been the President since its inception in 1941 of the All India Manufacturers’ Organisation, the object of which is to mobilise talent and money in the service of the Industry. He has served on several important Committees constituted by the Gove

rnments of India and Bombay.

A great Engineer, industrialist and statesman, there is probably no other man in India who at his age is credited with as much and as varied a service to his country as Shri Visveswaraya is. The author of two books “Reconstructing India” and “Planned Economy for India”, he is the Father of the idea of Planned Development in India.

Sir M. Visvesvaraya receiving Bharat Ratna from Dr. Rajendra Prasad, President of India, on the 7th September 1955 at New Delhi