PSG Family and the Growth of Coimbatore
No scriptDrive down Avinashi Road through Peelamedu and three letters appear again and again: on a school, a polytechnic, an engineering college, an arts college and a large hospital. PSG is one of the most familiar names in Coimbatore, and the story behind it is a family decision made almost a hundred years ago. This is the third post in our series on the pillars who built Coimbatore, after G.D. Naidu and Sir Robert Stanes.
Who Was P.S. Govindasamy Naidu?
P.S. Govindasamy Naidu (1856-1918) was a landowner of Peelamedu, then a village on the eastern edge of Coimbatore and today one of its busiest neighbourhoods. The initials P.S.G. come from his name. He had four sons:
- Venkataswamy Naidu
- Rangaswamy Naidu
- Ganga Naidu
- Narayanaswamy Naidu
It was these four brothers, after their father's death, who turned the family name into an institution.
A School for Everyone
The story usually told is that a member of the family was refused admission to the schools of the time, which were run under British control. The family's answer was to start a school of its own, open to all. The PSG Sarvajana School opened in 1924. Sarvajana means "for all people", and the name was a statement of intent.
1926: PSG and Sons' Charities
In 1926 the four brothers set aside one-fifth of their ancestral property, worth about 2.01 lakh rupees at the time, and created a trust in their father's memory: PSG and Sons' Charities. That trust still runs the PSG institutions today.
In the same year the trust founded the PSG Industrial Institute. It was a practical idea for a town whose mills were growing fast after the first textile mill of 1888 (see our post on Coimbatore, the Manchester of South India): train young people in real workshops, with real production, so they came out with skills industry needed.
Growing With the City
Over the next decades the trust added one institution after another:
| Institution | Year |
|---|---|
| PSG Sarvajana Higher Secondary School | 1924 |
| PSG Industrial Institute | 1926 |
| PSG Polytechnic College | 1939 |
| PSG College of Arts and Science | 1947 |
| PSG College of Technology | 1951 |
| PSG Institute of Medical Sciences and Research | 1985 |
| PSG Hospitals | 1989 |
| PSG College of Nursing | 1994 |
| PSG Public Schools | 2002 |
The order tells its own story: first a school, then trade skills, then diplomas, then degrees, then engineering, and finally medicine and health care.
PSG College of Technology
PSG College of Technology started in 1951, with G.R. Damodaran as its first principal. It grew directly out of the Industrial Institute, and that link shaped its teaching. The college is known for its "sandwich" engineering courses, five-year integrated programmes that mix classroom study with spells of industrial training. Few colleges in India offer this model.
The college is in Peelamedu, is affiliated to Anna University and has been autonomous since 1978. One landmark many Coimbatore residents know is the steel arch skywalk over Avinashi Road, designed and built by its civil engineering students in 2007 to link the main campus with the hostels.
Why PSG Matters to Coimbatore
Coimbatore's later strengths - pumps and motors, foundries, textile machinery, engineering and software - all needed trained people. Institutions like PSG's industrial institute, polytechnic and engineering college supplied a steady stream of technicians and engineers to the city's workshops and factories. You can follow that thread in our post on why Coimbatore is one of India's fastest-growing cities.
PSG Hospitals, opened in 1989 alongside the medical college, added a large teaching hospital on the eastern side of the city.
A Model of Local Philanthropy
Several features of the PSG story are worth noting:
- Family wealth put into a trust, not into private hands, so the institutions could outlive the founders.
- Education first, then health - the trust built from schools upward.
- Training linked to industry, so students learned on the shop floor as well as in class.
- Open admission as a founding idea, in the name Sarvajana itself.
Coimbatore has many family trusts and charities that run schools, colleges and hospitals, and PSG is among the oldest and largest of them.
Visiting and Finding Out More
The PSG institutions are spread along and near Avinashi Road in Peelamedu, close to the airport road. For admissions, courses and hospital services, use the official websites of the individual institutions, as dates, fees and procedures change every year. If you are choosing a school, our guide to schools in Coimbatore lists what to check.
Next in this series: more of the people whose work built Coimbatore.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Who founded PSG in Coimbatore?
PSG and Sons' Charities was founded in 1926 by the four sons of P.S. Govindasamy Naidu (1856-1918): Venkataswamy Naidu, Rangaswamy Naidu, Ganga Naidu and Narayanaswamy Naidu.
What does PSG stand for?
PSG comes from the name of P.S. Govindasamy Naidu of Peelamedu, the father of the four brothers who set up the trust in his memory.
When was PSG College of Technology started?
In 1951, with G.R. Damodaran as its first principal. It grew out of the PSG Industrial Institute (1926) and became autonomous in 1978.
Which institutions are run by PSG and Sons' Charities?
Among others: PSG Sarvajana Higher Secondary School (1924), PSG Industrial Institute (1926), PSG Polytechnic College (1939), PSG College of Arts and Science (1947), PSG College of Technology (1951), PSG Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (1985) and PSG Hospitals (1989).