Ramnath Goenka (April 3, 1904 – October 5, 1991) was born in Darbhanga district of Bihar. He completed his primary education in Varanasi. At the age of 15, he came to Chennai to learn the ropes of the business by venturing into the trade of yarn and jute. He was married to Moongibai.

RIn 1932, he took over the loss-making Madras edition of The Free Press Journal and drove the delivery van himself to dispatch the papers. He founded the Indian Express in 1936, and in 1941, he was elected President of the National Newspaper Editors’ Conference. Following this, both the Indian Express andamnath Goenka openly challenged the British Raj.

In 1948, Daily Tej partnered with Ram Nath Goenka to publish Indian News Chronicle, an English daily, from New Delhi. After the death of Lala Deshbandhu Gupta, Ramnath Goenka converted it as The Indian Express. Upon independence he was nominated as a member to the Constituent Assembly of India.


Ramnath Goenka would always be remembered for his role during the "Emergency" in India and his crusade against Indira Gandhi. R. Ramakrishnan who used to work with him was also hailed by Jayaprakash Narayan for organising meetings against the emergency. His bitter fight against the business tycoon Dhirubhai Ambani is still remembered. His critics believe that his passion for politics was the fire that led the newspapers from Indian Express Group on a blazing trail.