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{{EngvarB|date=June 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2015}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Sir Biren Mookerjee
| image =
| image_size = 220px
| caption =
| birth_name = Birendranath Mookerjee
| birth_date = 14 February 1899
| birth_place = [[Calcutta]], [[British India]] (present-day [[Kolkata]], [[West Bengal]], [[India]])
| death_date = 4 November 1982
| death_place = [[Kolkata]], [[West Bengal]], [[India]]
| occupation = Industrialist
| parents = [[Rajen Mookerjee|Sir Rajendra Nath Mookerjee]] and Lady Jadumati
| spouse = Ranu, Lady Mookerjee
}}

'''Sir Birendranath Mookerjee''' ({{lang-bn|স্যার বীরেন মুখার্জ্জী}}) (1899 – 1982) was an Indian industrialist who established steel-making facilities at [[IISCO]], [[Burnpur]] and developed other industrial establishments.<ref name = "Bose362">Sengupta, Subodh Chandra and Bose, Anjali (editors), (1976/1998), ''Sansad Bangali Charitabhidhan'' (Biographical dictionary) Vol I, {{in lang|bn}}, p 362, {{ISBN|81-85626-65-0}}</ref>

==Early life==
Son of pioneering industrialist [[Rajen Mookerjee|Sir Rajendra Nath Mookerjee]] and Jadumati, Lady Mookerjee he studied engineering at [[Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur|Bengal Engineering College]] before proceeding to [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], from where he did his B.A. and M.A. On return to India in 1924, he joined [[Martin Burn|Martin & Co.]] in 1924. He was knighted in 1942.<ref name = "Bose362"/>

==Association with steel industry==
With the death of Sir Rajen Mookerjee in 1936, the mantle of industrial entrepreneurship fell on Sir Biren. He made his debut as Chairman of the Steel Corporation of Bengal, which set up the steel making facilities, adjacent to the iron making plant set up earlier, at Burnpur. SCOB was later merged with IISCO.<ref>Srinivasan, N.R., ''History of The Indian Iron and Steel Company'', 1983, pp 60-61, published by IISCO, Burnpur.</ref> In December 1953, Sir Biren, along with other representatives of his company signed a loan agreement in Washington for US $31.5 million, to cover the foreign exchange requirement for the expansion of the plant. It was the first instance when the [[World Bank]] had advanced any loan to any industry in the private sector.<ref>Srinivasan, N.R., p85.</ref> he signed another loan agreement with the World Bank in 1956. What was most remarkable was that around 75% of the requirements of expansion were met by internal cash generation.<ref>Srinivasan, N.R., pp 88-89.</ref>

Sir Biren was an imposing leader with a dynamic personality galvanising a team at Burnpur to produce results. The team consisted of diverse elements such as J. McCracken, F.W.Lahmeyer, S.L.Moffat, I.S.Puri, and N.R.Dutt.<ref>Srinivasan, N.R., p93.</ref>

Sir Biren faced high drama when in 1968, [[Ramnath Goenka]] of the Indian Express Newspapers Ltd. tried unsuccessfully to take over IISCO. Sir Biren had survived with government support, since he held only two per cent of the shares of the company.<ref>Srinivasan, N.R., pp 119-120.</ref>

With persistent labour trouble in his plant in the late sixties, Sir Biren was a broken man. He said, “I see before my eyes a vast industrial complex, with which I was associated for nearly 40 years crumbling to dust.” IISCO was taken over by the government in 1972.<ref>Srinivasan, N.R., p 121.</ref><ref>Srinivasan, N.R., p 134.</ref>

==Personal life==
In 1925, Biren Mookerjee married Ranu Adhikari, daughter of Phani Bhusan Adhikari, a professor of [[philosophy]] of the [[Banaras Hindu University]]. Ranu (1907- 2000), was one of the exquisite beauties of her time, one of [[Rabindranath Tagore]]'s closest associates since her childhood days, and later became a great connoisseur of art and culture. She became Ranu, Lady Mookerjee after her husband was knighted, although she has always been fondly (if incorrectly) referred to as 'Lady Ranu' in popular culture. She established the [[Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata]] in 1933.<ref name="Academy of Fine Arts (Click)">{{cite web |title=Academy of Fine Arts |url=http://kolkata.clickindia.com/tourism/academyoffinearts.html |publisher=Click India |accessdate=28 August 2012 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111216184347/http://kolkata.clickindia.com/tourism/academyoffinearts.html |archivedate=16 December 2011 |df=dmy }}</ref> She and Sir Biren Mookerjee had two daughters and one son. [[Sunil Gangopadhyay]]'s 2012 novel, ''Ranu & Bhanu'' is partly based on her unfinished autobiography.<ref>{{cite news |title=When like minds meet |url=http://www.thehindu.com/books/when-like-minds-meet/article3722036.ece |work= The Hindu|date=August 3, 2012 |accessdate=March 14, 2013}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{cite web
| url = http://mookerjeesofbengal.4t.com/index.html
| title = The Mookerjees of Martin Burn
| accessdate = 2007-02-19
| last = Kaushik Rana
| first = Tarun Kumar Rana
| publisher =
}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mookerjee, Sir Biren}}
[[Category:Bengali people]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Kolkata]]
[[Category:1899 births]]
[[Category:1982 deaths]]
[[Category:Indian knights]]
[[Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Businesspeople in steel]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian engineers]]
[[Category:Engineers from West Bengal]]
[[Category:Mookerjee family|Biren]]

Biren Mookerjee - Revision history

CleanupBot at 06:02, 2 January 2022