M. S. Ramaiah (Kannada: ಎಂ. ಎಸ್. ರಾಮಯ್ಯ) was a renowned educationist, philanthropist, infrastructure visionary, industrialist, and a pioneer in creating several landmark infrastructure projects in India.
Mathikere Sampangi Ramaiah was born on 20 April 1922, in Madhugiri to Sampangappa and Narasamma. He completed his primary education in Mathikere, which was then in the outskirts of Bangalore city and then moved on to agriculture due to paucity of funds. Later he went to work for the Indian Railways for a span of about two years.

He then ventured into the job of a contractor and started off as a supplier of bricks for military camps in Bangalore during World War II. His immense success in the field of civil works was marked by the construction of some of the major projects in the state, such as the canals of the Ghataprabha Project, Talakalale Dam and also the Dharma Project. In 1962, Ramaiah established the Gokula Education Foundation, which marked the beginning of Ramaiah Institute of Technology. In 1979, the M. S. Ramaiah Medical College was set up and as a requisite for medical education, the M. S. Ramaiah Teaching Hospital was founded. With a vision of a multi-speciality centre, the M. S. Ramaiah Institute of Nephro–urology, M. S. Ramaiah Institute of Oncology and M. S. Ramaiah Institute of Cardiology was set up; the founding of M. S. Ramaiah Medical Teaching Hospital in 1985 added on to his list of milestones. Institutions founded by Ramaiah:

1962: M. S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology
1979: M. S. Ramaiah Medical College
1985: M. S. Ramaiah Medical Teaching Hospital
1987: M. S. Ramaiah Institute of Nursing Education & Research
1991: M. S. Ramaiah Dental College
1992: M. S. Ramaiah College of Pharmacy; M. S. Ramaiah Institute of Hotel Management
1993: M. S. Ramaiah Composite Junior College
1994: M. S. Ramaiah College of Arts, Science & Commerce; M. S. Ramaiah Vidhyaniketan
1995: M. S. Ramaiah Institute of Management
1996: M. S. Ramaiah Institute of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation; P G Course in Nursing [MSc (N)]
1997: M. S. Ramaiah Polytechnic
1999: M. S. Ramaiah School of Advanced Studies, now M S Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences
2004: M. S. Ramaiah College of Education
2006: M. S. Ramaiah International Medical School
2012: M. S. Ramaiah Advanced Learning Center; M. S. Ramaiah Institute of Neurosciences; M. S. Ramaiah Clinical Research Centre
2013: M S Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences
In his heart, Ramaiah had always been a deeply religious man and has left an indelible mark in all his activities as the President of Karnataka’s ancient shrine ‘Kaiwara. With M Vishweswariah as a role model, Ramaiah believed in industrialization and was its pioneer too. The setting up of M. S. Ramaiah Charities Trust led to the assistance of impecunious and meritorious students to pursue a bright career. This trust provides a scholarship of around 25 lakhs to exemplary and backward class students annually. It also supports scholarships for candidates appearing for civil service exams such as the IAS and IPS.

Realising the importance of development in any society, he was responsible for the construction of housing facilities for poor and middle-class families to live at reasonable and affordable prices. Earlier a suburb, the locality has now turned into a modern downtown of a quarter million population.