The first death anniversary of valiant freedom fighter and successful industrialist Md Nurul Islam Babul was observed on July 13. On that day in 2020, he breathed his last suffering from Covid-19. We do remember him not only as founder chairman of the Jamuna Group but also as the architect of widely circulated Bengali daily Jugantar and popular Jamuna Television. Born on 3 May 1946 in a respected Muslim family at Kamalkhola village under Churain union of Nababganj Upazila in Dhaka, Nurul Islam worked relentlessly until his death. Using his extraordinary talent and courage, he worked hard to build 41 companies in industry and service sectors. In particular, Jamuna Group is the country’s largest industrial group.
Nurul Islam was a first generation businessman and industrialist after the independence when investment was a matter of big courage due to huge uncertainty in war-torn Bangladesh. At that time getting bank loan for industrial purpose was not so easy. Much more difficult was — getting support from ministry concerned for starting any industry. Even so, he was daring enough to establish industries with his limited funds and resources. Behind every success story there is a man. And Nurul Islam was the man who showed the path of industrial revolution. He led businesses in multiple sectors, including electronics, textiles, oven garments, chemical, leather, motorcycle, beverage toiletries, construction and housing. Presently, Jamuna Group is also making hand sanitizers, healthy PPEs, etcetera to deal with corona pandemic. The Jamuna Future Park, largest shopping mall in this region, was also his brainchild.
Since the birth of Bangladesh we got leaders mostly anxious to enjoy egotism of continuing in power not to give up. They had no idea about what to do to help the private sector to grow. Some bold and determined persons braved the adverse atmosphere of corruption and went ahead to help the economy to develop. The governments were happy earning foreign remittance by exporting people for jobs-humiliating for the nation and in inhuman conditions for job seeker. Such governments helped plunderers and not private entrepreneurs. He deserves praise for not choosing easy life of making money for living a richly life abroad.
Our economy is dependent on foreign countries and our economy is hollow and the sycophantic bureaucratic government has no worry about fate of the general public.
However he made the money, he used it for the good of the private sector economy of the country. He had big ideas and worked hard to make them work.
