A. D. Shroff: Titan Of Finance And Free Enterprise

Ardeshir Darabshaw Shroff (1899-1965), Eminent Industrialist, Banker And Economist, Is Considered One Of The Architects Of Free India S Industrial Development And Modernization. Among The Earliest Exponents Of Free Enterprise In India, Shroff, Once Called A Congress Economist , Represented The Country As A Non-Official Delegate At The 1944 Bretton Woods Conference And Was An Author Of The Bombay Plan, Prepared By Eight Leading Industrialists In 1944 As A Blueprint For India S Post-War Economy. Later, In The Fifties, As Founder-Director Of The Investment Corporation Of India, Chairman Of Bank Of India And The New India Assurance Company, And Director Of Tatas And Many Other Leading Companies, He Became A Powerful Spokesman For Private Industry In An Increasingly Government Regulated Economy. His Steadfast Adherence To A Vision Of Free Enterprise In India Has Been Vindicated Thirty-Five Years Later By The Liberalization Policies Pursued In The Nineties.