amp; Co. (Atherton Mills), made Cawnpore a major textile producer. The Elgin Mills of Cawnpore was famous for its Drill Khakhi during the early/mid Twentieth Century. The Khaki cloth was famous for its colour and durability. The man behind this was the Dyeing Master Gopal Sadashiv Gogate, who died on 17 December 1942.
The British India Corporation (BIC) was headquartered here and led the development of many industries.
The first Indian business house of Cawnpore was the firm NihalChand KishoriLal, which set up a trading facility in 1857. This firm was a leader in oil milling and had many oil mills spread across North India. The NihalChand KishoriLal group (also known as Kejriwal Group) over time diversified into flour milling, tea plantations and steel. They bought the Cawnpore Flour Mills in 1942, which had been established in 1886 by Edward Foy, a Scotsman. The Juggilal Kamlapat Singhania family launched many factories between 1930 and 1970. The Jaipuria family contributed to the patriotic cause, by building the Swadeshi Cotton Mills in response to charges that the foreign rulers were raiding India of its cotton only to sell back textiles to the residents. The first steel re-rolling mill of India was established at Singh Engineering which later became one of the nation’s largest re-rolling mills. Kanpur was known as the "Manchester of India" during the 20th century. In 1901, with a population of 1,258,868, second only to Allahabad, the district headquarters, Kanpur was the largest trading and manufacturing centre in the United Provinces
Kanpur is an important center for India's leather industry and small arms. Kanpur has five Indian Ordnance Factories viz. Field Gun Factory, Ordnance Equipment Factory, Ordnance Parachute Factory, Ordnance Factory Kanpur, Small Arms Factory of the giganticOrdnance Factories Board which manufactures products of the Indian Armed Forces.
The British contributed to charitable causes in the city by
