Late. Shri Sushil Sain

We deeply regret to inform you that our very senior member & Past President of The Textile Association (India), Shri Sushil Sain passed away in his illness on 09th July 2011 at Mumbai at the age of 70 years.

Mr. Sushil Sain was no stranger to anyone in the cotton textile Industry. One of the youngest professionals in the industry he is an alumni of the Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute (VJTI), a Fellow of the Textile Association (India), Fellow of the Textile Institute Manchester. He was also a Fellow of few more Institutes.


He has been the Chairman of the Board of Textiles Studies of the (VJTI) for two terms and he was also a paper setter for the final year B.Text students and paper corrector.

He worked 14 years in the private sector in various capacities achieving the position of Manager and still looking for avenues to rise in life. He also had a deep desire to educate his two children’s son and daughter both are highly qualified and well placed.

Young and dynamic Mr. Sain was offered by one of his mentors a position of Chief Executive Officer of one of the mills of the NTC (SM) Ltd.

Within days of his joining he brought about substantial changes leading to improvement in the operation margins. Soon he was requested to take charge of a second mill. It was in a shocking state on every single parameter. The main scenario was as follows: “Had the mill been shutdown and the workers been offered NO WORK but were paid FULL WAGES, the mill would have made LOWER LOSESS”.

He tackled this mill and improvements were substantial. Seeing his performance within three months, he was summoned to Delhi Head quarters for an interview and was appointed as Director {Technical}

His mentor and boss Mr. D.P. Kelkar thereafter referred him to Delhi Headquarters. Within about 6 to 8 months. He was summoned by the high profile Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB).

He was selected as Chairman Managing Director and was called upon to take dual charge of Calcutta corporation charge of temporarily, controlling 18 textile mills, located at West Bengal, Assam, Bihar and Orissa etc and Bombay. He was then only 36. This assignment lasted one year until the new incumbent was appointed in 1978. He successfully managed to come out with flying colors the interference by the local communist parties and instead he was invited to join the Board of Directors of the state owned mills.

Biding his time for a position in Mumbai, He set up a power house of 4.5 mega Watts, a central testing chemical lab, a training school for learners and for up gradation of skills of existing workers as the plan was to go in for higher qualities of fabrics. A divisional office was put up which was close to the textile mills to enable the staff to save time of travel and all in the spacious Apollo mills.

Sometime later Sain was asked by Delhi to assume charge as Chairman Managing Director NTC (SM) Ltd. He was soon asked to assume dual charge and was appointed as the CMD NTC (MN) Ltd also. It was a rather a big responsibility of managing 22 textile mills having nearly about forty five thousand workers. The dual charge responsibility ceased when a new incumbent was appointed after about a year.

While peace prevailed came the Dr. Datta Samant Strike. This ruined the entire industry in Mumbai.

It was decided by the union government through an Ordinance by the President of India in October 983 to take over management of 13 sick mills. The Nationalization would take place later

The names of these were released only at midnight. Mr. Sain and his team conducted midnight operations very smoothly with the help of the Police Commissioner and completed the physical takeover by dawn.

The late Mr. V.P. Singh the then Commerce Minister was personally present in Mumbai seeking feedback every 30 minutes. These 13 mills, like Tata’s, Finlay, Kohinoor, and others among the list were allotted to Mr. Sain’s corporation making the total to 35 large mills having a labor strength of forty five thousand taking the grand total to ninety thousand, was no small job.

Mr. Sain and his team reopened the mills gradually with police ‘bandobast’ and mills were back with vengeance, to better performance. He was popular with his staff and workers, easy to meet but a hard task master.

He installed excellent systems (MIS) without which management would have been impossible as computerization was not so popular and expensive. He built an excellent Management team.

He also took up short Foreign Assignments of the Common wealth as a textile expert. In his personal capacity these were highly remunerative.

Mr. Sain looked at his future growth and found not many alternatives. He would have to shift to Delhi to take up the position of Managing Director of the Holding Company which was offered to him but held no attraction.

By then he was 45 years old. It was Sain’s feeling in the process of meeting officials that government was hard put to provide huge finances for modernization and also fund the losses Both these items only confirmed that growth in NTC was not possible This money would never be forthcoming. The idea of selling land arose at that time which has taken more than 20 years to fructify.

In the year 1986 his performance was his best in a long time. He decided to leave NTC and join Mr. Nanik Rupani a childhood friend in telecom operations and continue putting up new textile mills and to bring home new agencies in the telecom sector, two diverse fields!

He opened an office supported by his childhood friends at Nariman Point and engaged the services of his old colleagues and associates

His team added Project Management, turnkey jobs to Management consultancy.

By that time he was deep into telecom. He has been a pioneer bringing in video conferencing equipment to the country.

From 1994 at the age of 52 he was keeping indifferent health which restrained him from work however, with medication he was reasonably well till 1997. He and his team setup from scratch the country’s largest acrylic, cotton and blended yarn manufacturing facilities. He was a consultant to various reputed group of companies to set up new projects. He also set up composite textile mills and socks factories in collaboration with large Korean and Japanese companies.

He shut his Nariman Point office after completing his textile contracts fully in 1998 and continued part time from his telecom office till 2004. A man with two occupations !

Mr. Sain was very actively associated with The Textile Association (India), Mumbai Unit and also with Central. He was President in 1987-1989 and then Member of Trustees in 1991 to 2010 of TAI Mumbai Unit. He was Vice President during 1989 to 1991 and then President in 1993 to 1995 for TAI Central. He was also a member of Trustee of TAI Central.

Mr. Sain was awarded with a prestigious “Honorary Membership Award” for his distinguished contribution towards the development of Textile Industry of India in the year 1986 during 43rd All India Textile Conference held at Mumbai,

He was also felicitated with “Lifetime Achievement Award” during International Seminar on Organic Textiles held on 12th March 2010 at Mumbai.

We the members of The Textile Association (India) offer our heartfelt condolence for the death of Mr. Sushil Sain. We pray almighty to bestow eternal peace to the departed souls. We also pray almighty to give all the courage to his family to withstand irreparable loss.