Shri Mohammed Fazal (10.10.2002 – 05.12.2004)

Shri Mohammed Fazal served as Governor of Maharashtra between 10 October 2002 and 5 December 2004. Prior to his appointment as Governor of Maharashtra, he served as Governor of Goa from 26 November 1999 to 9 October 2002.

Born on 2 July 1922 at Allahabad, Fazal brought with him a vast and varied experience as a top management expert in the country, an administrator and a planner.

Shri Fazal read for his degree at the University of Allahabad and later completed his post-graduation from the London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London.

Shri Fazal was an appointed Member of the National Defence Advisory Board when it was first constituted in December, 1998, the position he resigned after being appointed as Governor of Goa.

He was the senior-most Member of the Planning Commission of India with the rank of Minister from April, 1980 to January, 1985, and was responsible for the industry, railways, minerals, power, coal, petroleum, transport, shipping, information and broadcasting sectors.

Shri Fazal was Secretary, Industrial Development, Government of India in 1977.

Shri Fazal has had a distinguished career both in the private and public sector industries. In 1944, he started his career as a Group Officer in the War Production Department of Government of India. Towards the end of 1946, he joined private industry and rose to the position of Deputy Head of the Department.

He was inducted as a Civil Servant in 1960 when the Government of India set up a new Civil Service Cadre under the Ministry of Home Affairs. He was selected on the basis of the result of an all India competitive examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission. He resigned from the Civil Service in 1979.

Management Guru:
Shri Fazal came to be regarded as one of the top management experts in the country. He was the youngest Managing Director both in the public and private sector public limited companies, when he was appointed to this post in December 1965 by the Government of India. This Company won the best performance awards for two consecutive years from the President of India. His work in the Company was also commended by the Prime Minister of India and other Ministers.

In 1970, the Government of India set up a new company Engineering Project (India) Ltd to take turnkey contracts of industrial projects both in India and abroad. Shri Fazal was appointed to head this Company. During the eight years, when he was the Chairman and Managing Director of this Company, the enterprise completed 12 international project contracts and 35 projects in India. The total project contracts the Corporation was handling when Shri Fazal left this company in 1979, were of the order of $900 million. In fact the Company was responsible to pioneer Indian project contracts abroad. It was the first Indian Company to start this. Other Indian Companies later followed this lead of the Public Sector Company of which Shri Fazal was Chairman and Managing Director. The work of Shri Fazal in this Company was also praised formally by the Prime Minister of India.

Shri Fazal was President of the Institute of Marketing and Management; Chairman of the Indian Institute of Office Management; President of the Institute of Company Secretaries for several years and Chairman of the National Management Board under the Ministry of Education, Government of India in the late 70’s. In the mid 1970’s, he was Member of both the Governing Board and the Governing Council of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, which is a national body for supervising and coordinating research work at a large number of research centres under the control of Government of India. The Prime Minister is the President of the Governing Council of this body.

Between 1985-1987, Shri Fazal was Executive Chairman of Nav Bharat Parker Dilling Company, a joint venture of an American and an Indian Company.

He was a member of the Joint Indo-US Business Committee and Indo-Japan Business Committee.

Shri Fazal also served as Director of a large internationally known English consultancy Company, W.S. Atkins, for 5 years up to 31st March, 1992.

He was Senior Advisor of a multinational Japanese Consultancy Company (Pacific Consultants International) from 1993 to 1995 for Middle East and South Asian countries for project contracts.

He was elected Executive Chairman of Hughes & Hughes Chem. Ltd., an Indo-UK Joint Venture in December, 1992, and had a 5 year term with the Company.

He was also a member of the Institute of Directors, U.K. for several years.

Among his various achievements, Shri Fazal was responsible for organizing the Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE) in 1968. SCOPE functions broadly on similar lines as a Chamber of Commerce and Industry. This organization has been officially recognized by the Government of India. Shri Fazal was elected Chairman of SCOPE for eight consecutive years.

In 1976, Shri Fazal earned the national award for the Best Marketing Man of the Year from the President of India.

OTHER INTERESTS:
Shri Fazal was involved with a number of management, industrial and cultural organizations in the country and wrote on a number of economic and management issues. He came to acquire a position of eminence in political, industrial and business circles. He travelled extensively abroad and developed important connections. He was for six years (80-86) Member of the Executive Council of the Jamia Milia Islamia University, and also a member of its Court. He was also a member of the Academic Council of the Aligarh Muslim University. In early 1970’s he was a member of the Court of Banaras Hindu University. In the 1980’s he was President for 6 years of the Executive Committee and Governing Council of an educational institution in New Delhi. He was the President in 1987 and 1988 of a large Cooperative Society.

He was a member of the President’s Estate Polo Club, Delhi Gymkhana Club, India International Center and United Services Institute.

IN MAHARASHTRA:
While in Maharashtra, Shri Fazal gave a strong impetus to the population control programme and organized vasectomy camps in the State with the help of Public Health Department. He also played an important role in the drought relief effort in the State. Shri Fazal took keen interest in the welfare of employees of Raj Bhavan.

Even Though, Shri Fazal had a brief tenure of only two years in Maharashtra, he played a constructive role in the areas of welfare and development.

Shri Fazal passed away at Allahabad on 4th September 2014.