R. N. Shetty

Rama Nagappa Shetty (15 August 192817 December 2020) was an Indian entrepreneur and philanthropist. He was the owner of R N Shetty Group of companies, including RNS Infrastructure, RNS Maruti Suzuki (RNS Motors), Murudeshwar Ceramics, Naveen Hotels and Murudeshwar Power. He was the chairman of a chain of educational institutions under the R N Shetty Trust. He was a recipient of the Karnataka state government's Rajyotsava Award in 2004.

Early life Shetty was born on 15 August 1928, in the coastal town of Murdeshwar, in the present-day Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka into a family of farmers. The company took up public infrastructure buildings including bridges on the Honnavar–Bangalore road. In 1966, he shifted base from his native Uttara Kannada district to Hubli, in the northern Karnataka. He also built tunnels for the Konkan Railway project and canals for the Upper Krishna Project. In 1987, he set up Murudeshwar Ceramics to manufacture glazed ceramic tiles with manufacturing facilities in Hubli and Karaikal in Puducherry. The trust also operated hospitals and undertook rural education programs in Karnataka.

Shetty was credited with the modernisation of the temple town of Murudeshwara and transforming it into a tourist attraction. were built using funding from Shetty.

Awards and recognition Bangalore University awarded an Honorary Doctorate to Shetty in 2009 and in 2004 he received the Visvesvaraya Memorial Award from the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry. He was a recipient of the Karnataka Government's Rajyotsava award in 2004. R. N. Shetty memorial at RNS Institute of Technology, Bangalore

Personal life Shetty was married to Sudha Shetty and had three sons and four daughters.