K C Kunder came home to serve his people, and the Arabian Sea had other plans. The rest is five decades of history.
A brilliant student from childhood with a genuine passion for numbers, he trained as a Company Secretary, part of the first-ever batch of the course in Bombay, and served several companies before returning to Kota. But it was the sea that called him back for good. Between 1967 and 1969, he built his first trawl boat and opened the coast's first private ice plant, laying the groundwork for what would become Janatha Group. In 1976, he introduced the region's first Persian boat and later became among the first to bring steel boats to Malpe, a shift that made local fishing safer, sturdier, and simply more efficient.
He was a man of discipline in everything he touched, from boats to boardrooms, and that discipline built an institution that outlived him. Beyond business, he served as the first President of the Dakshina Kannada Zilla Parishad, drove the construction of Fisheries Road for the region's fishing communities, and helped establish a government school so education never stayed out of reach.