Saraswat Bank fraternity is in deep shock. They have nevertheless found time to write a note on the making of the cooperative leader Eknath Thakur who breathed his last on Thursday. Excerpts:
Shri Thakur was a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha and was elected unopposed from the State of Maharashtra and completed a full-term from 2002 to 2008. He was a Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology and Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence and Member of Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Finance, Member of Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Commerce and Member of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Food Processing Industry.
Currently, he was a Member of the Indian Parliamentary Association. He was also the President of Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture from 2004 to 2006. He also held the position of Hon. Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of Indian Education Society, one of the largest education institutions in Mumbai, having under its canopy 75 educational institutions.
Shri Thakur did his B.A. (Hons) from S.P College, Pune in Maharashtra State. While doing M.A., he was English-History scholar of the Pune University. During his M.A. studies in 1966, he appeared for the All India Class-I Officer – Probationary Officer examination of State Bank of India and qualified with distinction among thousands of graduates and post-graduates, joined State Bank and worked there in many capacities, at Betul, Panjim, Amraoti, Hyderabad and Mumbai. While serving the Bank, Shri Thakur was the All India President of the State Bank Officers’ Federation from 2001 to 2006 and led thousands of officers of that Bank working in thousands of Branches of the Bank and of its seven subsidiary Banks of SBI, like State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Indore, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Saurashtra, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, etc.
After nationalization of the Banks in July 1969, Shri Thakur along with a few others, took initiative in forming the All India Confederation of all Bank Officers in this country. He was its founder Vice-President and later, he became its All India President representing the nearly 2,00,000 Bank Officers in India. In 1973, he was elected the national Secretary General of All India Coordination Committee of Officers’ Organisations (AICCOO) representing 6,50,000 (six and half lakh) officers and executives working in all major industries such as Banking, Insurance, Aviation, Coal, Steel, Mines, Fertilizer, Pharmaceuticals, Plantations, etc., both in public and private sector. In 1976, he resigned from his job from State Bank of India, to start his own training institute, National School of Banking.
In 1977, International Labour Organisation (ILO), the agency of UNO held the first ever World Conference of Officers and asked 122 member governments to nominate only one delegate from each country to represent all the officers in each country. The Morarji Desai government nominated Shri Thakur to the World Conference as the single representative from India, representing nearly 30 lakh officers. At the Conference held in Geneva, Switzerland, Shri Thakur was elected unopposed as the Vice President of the World Group of Officers. Thus, he was the top-most leader of officers’ movement in this country and a Trade Unionist.
Shri Thakur was President of the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture. He was the Chief Executive of New India Co-op. Bank and a Director of Maharashtra State Financial Corporation. In 2001, he was appointed Director on the Central Board of State Bank of India, the largest banking group having 14,000 branches and an asset base of over Rs. Ten lakh crores. Shri Thakur had been the Director of Saraswat Bank for last over twenty years and in 2011, for the first time in the 93 year history of Saraswat Bank, his panel of sixteen members had been elected unopposed by 1,68,000 shareholders of the Bank and Shri Thakur was unanimously re-elected as the Chairman of this largest Urban Co-operative Bank in the country. His own privately-owned institute, National School of Banking was founded by him thirty-three years ago. It has branches across India and has trained nearly 3,50,000 students so far. 73,000 of his students have secured jobs in various institutions – 55,000 of his students have worked / and are working in the Banking Industry alone. He was the General Secretary of the World Bank Network (India) for Parliamentarians in the middle of his term as MP.
He was associated with several trusts, institutions as Trustee, President, etc. Among others, he currently was a member of the Committee of Maharogi Sewa Samiti, (Anandwan) Warora established by late Shri Baba Amte. He was a Trustee of Kusumagraj Pratisthan, Nasik. He is a Trustee of Konkan Marathi Sahitya Parishad (Komasaapa). He was the President of My Home India and the President of Bharat Jodo Abhiyaan (India). For his work in the social field, he had earned awards from NGOs functioning in Maharashtra.
Awards received by him from NGOs and social organisations include –
(1) Samaj Ratna Award (2) Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Award (3) Sane Guruji Award (4) Cancer Vijeta Award (5) Cancer Survivor Award. (He has been fighting the affliction of cancer for 42 years now and has undergone severalsurgeries and radiation, etc.) (6) Rotary International’s “Lifetime Achievement Award” at the hands of Rotary International Club’s Dr. Mark Maloney and in the presence of Hon’ble Shri Prafulji Patel, then Union Minister for Civil Aviation in the Rotary International’s District 3140 Annual Conference held at Hotel Leela Kempinski, in the presence of thousands of Rotarians. (7) The “Excellence in Business Communication Award” given by the Association of Business Communicators of India (ABCI). (8) Udyog Ratna Award given by Manohar Pratishthan. (9) The national-level W.G. Alias Annasaheb Chirmule Charitable Trust conferred the Annasaheb Chirmule Award on Shri Thakur in recognition of his outstanding work in the field of banking and finance. (10) In October, 2011 the All India Saraswat Cultural Organisation and the All India Saraswat Foundation conferred the prestigious ‘Saraswat Ratna Award’ on Shri Thakur. (11) In March 2012, he was honoured with the Outstanding Konkani of the Year-2012 by the TMA Pai Foundation, Manipal. (12) In May, 2012 he was honoured with the Maxell Lifetime Achievement Award at the hands of Shri Prithviraj Chavan, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra by the Maxell Foundation, Maharashtra. (13) In July, 2013 he was honoured with the Sangli Vaibhav Credit Society’s Sahakar Gaurav Puraskar – from amongst 2,29,000 co-operative institutions in Maharashtra – at the hands of Hon’ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Shri Prithviraj Chavan. (14) In August, 2013 he was honoured with the MACCIA – IBN Lokmat Lifetime Achievement Award at the hands of Hon’ble Union Minister for Agriculture, Shri Sharad Pawar. (15) In September, 2013 he was honoured with the Lokmanya Matrubhoomi Puraskar of Rs. 5,51,000/- awarded by the Lokmanya Credit Society, Belgaum at the hands of Hon’ble Chief Minister of Goa, Shri Manohar Parrikar.
Shri Thakur lost both his parents at the age of two, worked as a shop-boy for nine years in early childhood i.e. from seven to sixteen years of his age at Kudal in Sindhudurg District, earned and learned from the 1st standard to university education. He was General Secretary of Bharat Jodo Abhiyan (India) which organised the 13000 km. Knit India (Bharat Jodo) March, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Arunchal to Okha led by late Baba Amte in the interest of national integration and environmental awareness. He was a close associate and ardent follower of late Baba Amte and he was the President of Bharat Jodo Abhiyan Trust, Anandwan, District Warora.
It is with deep regret and sorrow we inform you that our Chairman, Shri Ekanath K Thakur departed for his heavenly abode on 7th August 2014, due to prolonged illness.
