I was born on 1st November 1936 in a small village ramanayapalem in prakasam district, Andhra Pradesh. I hail from a poor farmers family who are uneducated. I studied education privately , simultaneously working in agricultural fields along with my parents. I passed 7th class exams as a private candidate. I had an interest in pursuing further studies as a regular student. I studied 8th class in bapatla, our near by town. I had to discontinue my school education due to financial problems and helped my father in our agricultural fields. Since I was the youngest child , I was loved by all the members of our family. I was brought up in such a way that I developed independent views, broad vision, strong will, determination to hard work and leadership over the others in all walks of life.

At this juncture one day at the age of 19 we all brothers were carrying paddy bags from fields. As I could not lift a 75 kg paddy bag, my father humiliated me before all my family members. In my subsequent years I took this as a challenge and did rigorous exercises for two hours every day and kept my body and soul fit at all times. I could not bear the humiliation from my beloved father and decided to leave my native place and reached Guntur in may, 1956 with empty hands. I did not have even a single rupee from my parents except two dresses given by my second brother.

I contacted a distant relative Sri K Chandra Reddy, a resident of narasayapalem who in turn introduced me to a businessman in Guntur. I started my career with voluntary service having no salary for five months. During these five months, he helped me a lot by giving 22 /- per month for my day to day expenses. I used to stay in a choultry. This was a turning point in my life.

From here, my career has grown heaps and bounds.

With the financial assistance from Andhra bank, between 1962 to 1985, I started 18 companies with other partners including my ex-colleagues and relatives.

In all the above firms, I was one of the partners , managing partner, managing director and chairman of kallam group of companies. I opened an account with Andhra bank in 1956. During my initial years I neither have property nor cash with me. Andhrabank has played a vital role in my life by giving loans without any type of securities up to 1988.

From 1940, the reddy jana sangam society was unable to construct a hostel for students in their available land. I had taken the challenge to raise the funds and construct the students hostel. By that time I was very popular with chilli merchants and farmers. I had successfully collected the necessary funds by going round villages and constructed the hostel in six months and further arranged scholarships for poor students of the reddys and 15% other communities by “reddy jana seva samithi”.

During this period, I was humiliated by three advocates who were the board members of RJS. I took it as a challenge and started my education at the age of 42. I studied privately by allocating a few hours for business and remaining time for studies with great perseverance. I studied B.A. and M.A. through correspondence and B.L. through regular A.C. college , Guntur along with my son , as my classmate. I successfully completed law degree. In the year 1988, I constructed an oil mill at dokiparru. In 1994, for which I toured entire south india along with my son-in-law for a period of 3 months to prepare a project report on spinning mills. But unfortunately, I severely fall ill and got bed ridden with hepatitis B. I was admitted to jeslok hospital, Mumbai for two months. As advised by the doctors, I was brought back to Guntur. The foundation stone for spinning mill was laid down by me in a faint condition just to fulfill my long cherished desire. On contrary to the utter surprise of every one , my health improved day by day, by the grace of god almighty. The construction work continued uninterruptedly and the mill was completed in a record time of 8 months 24 days. In 1995, the spinning mill went for the public issue and got five times oversubscribed.

In 1996, kallam agro products and oils ltd. Had started the construction of solvent & oil refinery plant, which was another land mark in my career. In a record time of 7 months , the construction was completed and from then to till date we are the second highest domestic sale of DOC in india.

Our spinning mill was awarded ISO 9000 by TUV india and it is an ISO 900 unit for the last one decade. Kallam spinning mill had been expanded further at kunkupadu in prakasam district by constructing a weaving project having 250 airjet and rapier looms with a capacity of 100000 meters cloth per day.

We further ventured to construct four mini hydel power projects one at janapadu and three at nelakondapalli with a total capacity of 5.0 MW at a cost of Rs. 35 crores. Today kallam group is being financed by five banks- Andhra bank, Indian bank, state bank of Hyderabad, bank of baroda and axis bank having a total exposure of rs. 400 crores to our group.

After retirement , at the age of 68 , I wanted to practice law in court. I have registered under bar counsel of india and idid apprenticeship under senior advocate Mr. Sitaramdas who had given lessons when I was studying in the evening college. I went to court for 2 years and practiced as a junior lawyer.

In 2007 ,I started real estate at settenapalli and piduguralla in a big way. It was a grand success. My desire of giving education to students had remained with me. The engineering college foundation stone was laid in February 2010 with the money I have earned in real estate and with the help of group companies. We have constructed the college in a record time of six months and got all the necessary approvals from AICTE and JNTU. I am putting my sincere efforts to bring up the college as one of the best engineering colleges in AP state.

Thus in all walks of my career, I developed such a determination that I should be one step ahead of others. I maintained the same throughout my career . I am physically fit and mentally sound to date. I strongly believe that my success in both education and business is possible only because of the belief in hard work , discipline, quality, strong will, determination , patience, courtesy, moral values, loyalty, broad vision , high ambition and cordial relationship with workers & customers. I treat my staff and workers alike irrespective of their caste, creed or religion as the members of my family.

I spend a few hours daily in praying to the lord for the well-being of the members of my family, relatives, partners, my workers, my financial institutions , my country and myself. GEMINI TV and ETV have taken my life sketch, my daily routine, my ambition and discipline for their TV programs. Many news papers like THE HINDU, THE EENADU, THE ANDHRAJYOTHY and THE SUPRABHATHAM have published my life story in their daily news as a self-made industrialist and well disciplined person from my early age.

I am actively participating in social activities, I am the president of vishwa hindu parishad of purva Andhra , vice president of gosamrakshana sangam, india. As a matter of fact, I am concentrating on downtrodden people without any discrimination of caste, creed or religion.

I am grateful all those that humiliated me directly or indirectly . Otherwise I would not have risen to this stage. I am grateful to the Andhra bank for with out whose support I would not have risen to such great heights in my business.

kallam haranadha reddy
Chairman , Kallam Group