T. T. Krishnamachari

Tiruvellore Thattai Krishnamachari
Member of parliament, Lok Sabha for Madras South
In office 1957–1962
Prime Minister	Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
Preceded by	None
Member of parliament, Lok Sabha for Madras
In office 1951–1957
Prime Minister	Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
Preceded by	None
Succeeded by	bifurcated into Madras North and Madras South constituencies
Personal details
Born	1899
Died	1974
Nationality	Indian
Political party	Indian National Congress
Profession	Politician, Entrepreneur TTK group
Religion	Hindu

Tiruvellore Thattai Krishnamachari (1899–1974) was the Indian Finance Minister from 1956–1958 and from 1964-1966. He was also a founding member of the first Governing Body of NCAER, the National Council of Applied Economic Research in New Delhi, India’s first independent economic policy institute established in 1956. Krishnamachari graduated from Madras Christian College (MCC) and was a visiting professor to the department of economics at MCC. He was popularly known as TTK. He has the ignominy of being the first minister in free India to have resigned due to his involvement in a scam.^[1] He was also a member of drafting committee, an entrepreneur and prominent leader within the Indian National Congress.

Early life

T T Krishnamachari was born in 1899 into a Brahmin family in the city of Chennai. His father was a judge in the High Court. T T Krishnamachari graduated from Madras Christian College .^[2] He founded TTK group, an Indian business conglomerate famous for its Prestige brand, in the year 1928.

Political Life

T T Krishnamachari was initially elected to the Madras Legislative Assembly as an independent member, and later joined the Congress. In 1946, he was made a member of the Constituent Assembly at the Centre. From 1952 to 1965, he served the country twice as a Central Minister. He was the first Minister for Commerce and Industry and then Finance Minister. He also remained in charge of the Steel Ministry for quite some time. He became Minister again in 1962, first without portfolio, then the Minister for Economic and Defence Cooperation and finally Finance Minister again, in 1964 and finally retired in 1966.^[3]

Later life

He was forced to resign from the post of Finance Minister on 18 February 1958 after the Mundhra scandal broke out ^[4] wherein his complicit involvement was discovered. He was re-elected in 1962 and Jawaharlal Nehru had offered him any cabinet position except that of the Finance ministry ^[5] but was rehabilitated in 1962 as cabinet minister without a post and again as the finance minister a position that he held until 1966. Upon his retirement, he died in 1974 due to age related illness.

Mowbray's Road in Chennai renamed TTK Road after his death.

External links

• Budget over the years

References