By Savita Bhave Translation Nandu Dange

with which Menon achieved the task. Later he also got export opportunities.Besides Escorts, even DCM Engineering products and Ennore Foundriesgained confidence because of him. Escorts were able to turn out world-classtractors. The product vastly helped the farmers in the north and south toincrease their wheat and rice production at reasonable costs.People at Menon too have provided some details of the Escorts assignment.Cylinder block production was slow, but the quality was unquestionable. Thepeople from Escorts urged them to increase production; they even conducteda study and provided plans and flowcharts. Menon increased production withtheir aid, but the levels were still short of Escorts expectations. Menon was astickler for methodical work. Shankarrao Nesarkar recalls that there wasdoubt as to their abilities in terms of producing the Escorts blocks in largenumbers. Producing a sample at first attempt was fine, but the acid test wasto produce these complex parts in sufficiently large numbers to meetdemands and to make money. Earlier, challenging jobs like manufacturingWRG housings and trumpet housings had been successfully executed.Menon understood that the real test as an organization was to manufacture aprofitable product. He gave ideas, guidance and encouragement to all,admonishing them when they erred, prodding them, encouraging them in theirmission. He would be vastly pleased when they succeeded and was free withwords of congratulations and praise.This phase in the development of the company was the most crucial andfinally Menon succeeded in his attempts. He upgraded the manufacturingfacilities in the foundry and machine shop to make Escorts castings, andbegan to supply the castings as fully machined components ready forassembly. Mohammed Saheb Hudli remembers that Escorts ManagingDirector Rajan Nanda was so pleased at the successful and timelydevelopment of their complex components that he invited Menon to Delhi for afelicitation and awarded Menon with a citation.Hakikat Singh, who was later head of tractor manufacturing at Escorts, recallsthe time when the components were developed for Escorts. Menon had seenin the year 1969-70 that there was vast potential for tractors in an agrarianeconomy like India and was therefore looking at opportunities to enter thetractor industry. Hakikat Singh was Tool Room Manager with Escorts from1965. He had a slight acquaintance with Menon from his stint at the KhadkiOrdnance Factory in 1950. He later spent five years in Germany and joinedEscorts on his return in 1964. In 1974, Escorts was sourcing tractor enginesfrom Kirloskar and also importing from Germany. Engine manufacture waslater stopped in Germany, and technology was not available for indigenousmanufacture. Hakikat Singh suggested to Rajan Nanda that they manufacturethe engines in-house. Nanda agreed, and a team of six executives left forGujarat and Maharashtra to hunt for subcontractors. It was known that enginecastings were made in these areas. They had a meeting with Menon whoundertook to develop the cylinder heads and blocks. However, that involved acapital outlay of Rs 4 million. His proposal was sound but such a large outlayrequired clearance from the top management and so Menon was invited toFaridabad for talks, which took place at several levels. Nanda was not inclined