New Delhi: Dr. S.K.Somaiya, Chairman of the Somaiya Group has passed away in Melbourne, Australia on 1 January. He was 83. He is survived by his wife, one son and one daughter. Dr. Somaiya was in Australia to attend an Inter-faith dialogue. He was also heading the Somaiya Trust and Somaiya Vidhya vihar. Somaiya Group has large interests in Sugar, Industrial Alcohol, Organic Chemicals, Salt, Printing and Publications, Agriculture, Bulk Drugs, etc. since over five decades.

Dr. Somaiya was associated with various Educational, Social and Cultural Organizations and had been Member of the Senate of the University of Mumbai, SNDT Women's University and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He had been a member of various Committees constituted by Ministry of HRD including specialized committees of University Grants Commission (UGC).

A Champion of Inter-faith harmony, Dr. Somaiya had been working relentlessly for the last many decades to encourage Vedic studies in India and abroad. On the invitation of President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev, Dr. Somaiya had recently attended and presented a very scholarly paper in the Third Congress of World Religions in Kazakhstan.

FICCI has deeply mourned the demise of Dr Somiaya. In a statement, it said that in the death of Dr. Somaiya the country has lost a great visionary and Industrialist. He was closely associated with many key committees of FICCI since last many decades.

Meanwhile, condoling his demise, Maulana Umer Ahmed Ilyasi, Secretary General of All India Organization of Imams of Mosques, said “this is a huge loss to cause of Education, Enlightenment, Carrying forward Vedic Thoughts and communal Harmony.  Dr.S.K. Somaiya carried the work beyond the shores of India. Popes, Presidents, Pandits, Padres and Maulvis loved and respected him; and he silently worked for the paupers, whose upliftment was foremost in his mind,” he concludes.