Dr Alluri Venkata Satyanarayana Raju, founder and Chairman Emeritus of NCC Limited and a Padma Shri awardee, passed away in Hyderabad on 13 October 2026. He was 89.

Born on 18 April 1937 in Antarvedipalem village in Andhra Pradesh's erstwhile East Godavari district, Raju began his entrepreneurial journey in 1956. He established Nagarjuna Construction Company (NCC) Limited in 1978, which subsequently emerged as one of India's leading construction and infrastructure companies.

Under his leadership, NCC became a public limited company in 1990 and expanded into one of India's prominent listed construction firms, contributing to the country's infrastructure development.

In recognition of his contributions to trade and industry, the Government of India conferred the Padma Shri on Raju in 2010. He also received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Acharya Nagarjuna University in 2008 for his contributions to education and the promotion of human values.

Beyond his business achievements, Raju was a poet and philanthropist. He authored more than 25,000 poems on various subjects, including over 24,000 verses dedicated to Sri Sathya Sai Baba across 42 volumes. His literary work earned him a Guinness World Record in 2008 for the largest single-volume book of poems dedicated to Sri Sathya Sai Baba.

The board of directors, management and employees of NCC Limited expressed their condolences following his demise, marking the loss of a prominent figure in India's construction industry.