Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as part ...

Purshottamdas Thakurdas (1879–1961), , was an Indian

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...

cotton trader, banker and industrialist from

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. He had served as the

Sheriff of Bombay The Sheriff of Bombay is an apolitical titular position of authority bestowed for one year on a prominent citizen of Bombay. The sheriff is an officer of the High Court and the nominal Head of the High Court Department which carries out the or ...

in 1920 and succeeded Sir Mathuradas Vissanji in 1922 as President of Cotton Association of India (later the Cotton Corporation of India). He was a member of the Acworth Committee and a member of the

Hilton Young Commission The Hilton Young Commission (complete title: Royal Commission on Indian Currency and Finance) was a Commission of Inquiry appointed in 1926 to look into the possible closer union of the British territories in East and Central Africa. These were in ...

. He along with GD Birla then established the

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) is a non-governmental trade association and advocacy group based in India. History Established in 1927, on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi by Indian businessman G.D. Birla a ...

in 1927, on the advice of

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

. During the early 1930s there was a swing among the Indian businessmen towards a policy of more substantial compromise with the Raj, and they found

Lord Irwin Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax (16 April 1881 – 23 December 1959), known as the Lord Irwin from 1925 until 1934 and the Viscount Halifax from 1934 until 1944, was a British Conservative politician of the 1930s. He h ...

Viceroy of India The governor-general of India (1833 to 1950, from 1858 to 1947 the viceroy and governor-general of India, commonly shortened to viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom in their capacity as the Emperor of ...

, anxious to meet them half way: ''"The 'liberal' and 'moderate' leaders, including the prominent Bombay businessman Purshottamdas Thakurdas, issued a statement from Bombay welcoming Irwin's declaration"''. On 12 November 1935, he was elected a member of the Local Board for the Western area of the

Reserve Bank of India Reserve Bank of India, abbreviated as RBI, is the central bank of the Republic of India, and regulatory body responsible for regulation of the Indian banking system and Indian rupee, Indian currency. Owned by the Ministry of Finance (India), Min ...

(RBI) and was the fourth longest-serving director on the Central Board of the RBI. Thakurdas was one of the signatory of ''

Bombay Plan The Bombay Plan is the name commonly given to a World War II-era set of Import substitution industrialization-based proposals for the development of the post-independence economy of India. The plan, published in 1944/1945 by eight leading Indian in ...

'', which was set of proposals for the post-independence economy of India. He headed the Foodgrain Policy Committee of 1947.

References

Gujarati people Businesspeople from Mumbai Gujaratis from Mumbai Indian Knights Bachelor Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire Members of the Order of the British Empire Indian Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Indian businesspeople in textiles Members of the Bombay Legislative Council Members of the Bombay State Legislative Assembly Recipients of the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal Members of the Council of State (India) Founders of Indian schools and colleges 20th-century Indian philanthropists Indian bankers 1879 births 1961 deaths Sheriffs of Mumbai {{India-business-bio-stub