Industrialist and Nitte University Chancellor N Vinaya Hegde Dies
The son of former Supreme Court judge and former Lok Sabha Speaker Justice KS Hegde, Vinaya Hegde was the elder brother of former Lokayukta Justice N Santosh Hegde
Mangaluru: N Vinaya Hegde, Chancellor of Nitte (Deemed to be University), noted industrialist and philanthropist, passed away early on Wednesday. He was 86.
The son of former Supreme Court judge and former Lok Sabha Speaker Justice KS Hegde, Vinaya Hegde was the elder brother of former Lokayukta Justice N Santosh Hegde. He is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.
Born in 1939, Vinaya Hegde was an entrepreneur, technocrat and educationist who made a lasting impact in the fields of education and healthcare. In 1979, he founded the Nitte Education Trust, which grew from a small Kannada-medium school into a major educational network. Today, the Trust runs 43 institutions, including schools, professional colleges and hospitals, serving over 29,000 students and employing more than 5,500 staff.
Under his leadership, Nitte (Deemed to be University) was established in 2008. The Justice KS Hegde Charitable Hospital and its network of rural health centres provide affordable and free healthcare across Karnataka and northern Kerala.
Vinaya Hegde also founded the Lamina Group of Companies, a major industrial enterprise and employer in the region. Its flagship firm, Lamina Suspension Products Ltd, established in 1976, is a leading manufacturer of automobile leaf springs.
He served as Chairman of the Karnataka government’s Coastal Agenda Task Force, which played a key role in proposing a Special Economic Zone for the development of coastal districts.
