[citation needed] He was one of few founding members of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway along with Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy and David Sassoon.

It is the same institution where, the well known, Balshashtri Jambhekar, Dadabhai Nauroji, Mahadev Govind Ranade, Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar were the students during Nana's period.

When the Students' Literary and Scientific Society first opened their girls' schools,[4] Jagannath Shankarsheth contributed much of the necessary funds, despite strong opposition of some members of the Hindu community.

[7] Jagannath Shankarsheth, Sir George Birdwood and Dr Bhau Daji were instrumental in some of the major reconstruction efforts of the city, beginning 1857.

The three gradually changed a town made up of a close network of streets into a spacious and airy city, adorned with fine avenues and splendid buildings.

He also was the first Indian member of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai, and is known to have endowed a school and donated land in Grant Road for a theater.

His influence was used by Sir John Malcolm to induce the Hindus to acquiesce in the suppression of suttee or widow-burning,[4] and his efforts also paid off after the Hindu community was granted a cremation ground at Sonapur.

Gunbow Street (now called Rustom Sidhwa Marg) in the Fort business district of Mumbai, is named after Ganbasheth, and not, as many people assume, is of military origin.

[12] The Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, at Byculla in Mumbai which was designed by a famous London architect was built with the patronage of many wealthy Indian businessmen and philanthropists like Jagannath Shankarsheth, David Sassoon and Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy.