Arun Kumar Jagatramka has a strong accent and is sometimes a difficult man to understand, but his body language is generally warm and his smile broad.He has become a regular figure in Wollongong, flying in from India for several days every month to oversee the operations at Wollongong's NRE No 1 and NRE Wongawilli collieries.He is managing director of Gujarat NRE Coke, the Indian company named after a coal state in the subcontinent whose Australian arm is in control of the Wollongong mines.
Indian magnate saves the Wollongong HawksHis wife, Mona Jagatramka, is a director.Before Mr Jagatramka, then a merchant banker, took over the company in 1997 from his father, it was struggling.It is now five times larger and has becomeIndia's largest independent producer of metallurgical coke.The family's net wealth has grown from about $500,000 to more than $400 million.In 2004, Mr Jagatramka began looking at operations in Australia and, at a time when the industry is struggling, expects to increase his workforce in Wollongong from 400 to 500 within a year.Mr Jagatramka, 47, "a Kolkata boy at heart", has fallen for the country where he initially just sought a buck. "I came here as a buyer of coal," he said last year at the opening of NRE Wongawilli colliery. "I ended up buying the colliery and am now a proud Indian-Australian."The company recently bought the well-known Spence family home at 64 Cliff Rd."It is arguably one of the best pieces of real estate in Wollongong," he said last year.Mr Jagatramka's rescue of the Wollongong Hawks yesterday was a surprise, but certainly not out of character. The man who believes beauty pageants can help build bridges, BMWs are nice to drive, and Kolkata's puchka and Mumbai's vada pav are the best dishes around, also seems to have a giving nature.He has helped to establish business links between India and Australia and gives money to Illawarra mental health services based on the amount of coal his No 1 Colliery produces.Fiercely proud of his heritage, he sees himself as a leader.He once wrote in a company magazine: "India has broken the shackles of mediocrity ... it had imposed on itself."Gone are the days of dependence, of looking towards the West for technology, capital, markets or processes."
