[1] He was the son of Rai Bahadur Ram Kishen Das Gurwale, the founder of the Delhi Cloth & General Mills, one of the oldest companies in India.
The British Government in India conferred Shri Ram with knighthood in 1941 in recognition of his contributions to the development of Indian society.
[3] Coming from a family of modest means, Shri Ram began as a humble worker and went on to build one of India's largest business: Delhi Cloth & General Mills—an industrial empire manufacturing a vast variety of goods such as textiles, sugar, chemicals, vanaspati, pottery, fans, sewing machines, electric motors, and capacitors.
[1] Lala Gopal Roy, Shri Ram's uncle, was one of the founders and the first secretary of Delhi Cloth & General Mills, which was founded on 2 March 1891.
[4][clarification needed] Shri Ram appears on the scene first in 1905 (at the age of 21) when he attended an Annual General Meeting with his uncle, Lala Gopal Roy.
He ran the company with his father for another decade after that, but the latter slowly faded out, and Shri Ram assumed full formal charge.
[4] During World War I (1914–18), Shri Ram persuaded his father to enter into a big contract to supply tents for the British Army, quickly earning the company a lot of money.
Shri Ram believed that if India was to catch up with the rest of the world, it was necessary to understand existing technology and innovate it through research.
[8][circular reference] On 16 February 1930, Shri Ram became the 4th president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), and with Mahatma Gandhi by his side, delivered his presidential address.