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Arulanandam Yesuvadiyan Samuel Gnanam popularly known as A. Y. S. Gnanam was a successful Sri Lankan business tycoon who founded St. Anthony's Group among other.
Gnanam in his tender age ventured into selling scrap iron on the road and eventually built the multi-billion worth St. Anthony's Group.
Gnanam was born in a small village Soukyapuram in Tirunelveli District, Madras Presidency, British India(in the present-day Tamil Nadu, India).
Gnanam went to a small school in Soukyapuram and did well in his studies. Since the school only had classes up to fourth grade, his mother sent him to a bigger school in a close by town. He spent around one year at that school and returned back home due to accommodation issues.
He reached British Ceylon when he was 9 year-old and joined his father and brother who were working in a small town Horana.
In the 1930s he attended a night school to learn English, whilst working with his brother in a shop in Kottawa, spending half of his monthly salary for his studies.
Gnanam on his brother’s request used to go thrice a week with goods loaded on a bullock cart, to farmers markets around villages in Kottawa. He was given two rupees as his wage for each market; he used the wage to buy produce from Chena farms along the way and sold them at the market, and made profit for himself.
