The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) at Bangalore, established in 1909, was founded on the vision and endowment of:

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) at Bangalore (Bengaluru) was established in 1909 on the vision and endowment of Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, the founder of the Tata Group.

How IISc was founded:

• In 1893, on a voyage from Japan to the USA, Jamsetji Tata met Swami Vivekananda, and they discussed the need for scientific research in India.
• In 1898, Tata offered a large part of his property to set up an institution for research in science and technology.
• He wrote to Vivekananda asking him to support the plan.
• The government, the Maharaja of Mysore (Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV) and the Tata family supported the project; the Maharaja gave about 370 acres of land in Bangalore.
• Jamsetji Tata died in 1904, before the institute was set up; his sons carried on his plan.
• The institute was established on 27 May 1909, under a vesting order of the Viceroy, Lord Minto.
• The first Director was Morris Travers, a British chemist.

Achievements:

• V. Raman became the first Indian Director of IISc (1933).
• It is now one of the leading research institutions in Asia, and is a "deemed university".

About Jamsetji Tata:

• He was born on 3 March 1839 at Navsari, in Gujarat, into a Parsi family.
• He is called the "Father of Indian Industry".
• He built the Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay (opened in 1903).
• His dreams of a steel company and a hydroelectric power company were fulfilled after his death, with the Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO) being founded in 1907.
• The city of Jamshedpur in Jharkhand is named after him.

Why not the other options?

Ardeshir Godrej, G. D. Birla and Walchand Hirachand were other industrialists, but they did not found IISc.