Mangalore: Dr T M A Pai Foundation to Confer Outstanding Achiever Awards
Media Release
Mangalore, Mar 30: Dr T M A Pai Foundation, a Konkani Linguistic Minority Trust, established in memory of Padmashri Dr T M A Pai, every year honours outstanding Konkani speaking people who have distinguished themselves in different fields of human activity. This year the achievers to be honoured are R V Deshpande, N Yogish Bhat, Ekanath K Thakur and Saratchandra Shenoy.
R V Deshpande, Yogish Bhat and Eknath Thakur have been chosen for the Outstanding Achiever Award, while Saratchandra Shenoy will get the Best Konkani Book Award for the year 2011.
R V Deshpande
R V Deshpande had been the minister for large and small scale Industries and Infrastructure Development, government of Karnataka, philanthropist and presently a senior leader of the Indian National Congress, Raghunath Rao Vishwanatha Rao Deshpande, popularly known as R V Deshpande. His father was a successful lawyer and Deshpande had ample opportunities to continue practice in his father’s footsteps conveniently but because of his intuitive compulsion he led his law profession independently and with complete success. He had been the president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) for a span of two years. Apart from this, he had been the minister for co-operation, government of Karnataka, for Agriculture, government of Karnataka and for urban development and housing, government of Karnataka.
Deshpande established the Deshpande Rural Development and self employment Training Institute which provides free education and boarding for short and medium term courses enabling candidates to have self employment, Deshpande Institute of Vocational Training to provide quality vocational training in rural areas in current industrial applications with focus on 100% campus recruitment and organisation of annual National Level Wrestling Competitions and bullock cart race at Haliyal to preserve and promote traditional Indian sports.
Yogish Bhat
N Yogish Bhat is presently an MLA, Mangalore South Constituency and deputy speaker of Karnataka Legislative Assembly. He served as the corporater of Mangalore City Corporation for two years. Bhat had given a facelift to all the government primary, secondary schools, PU college in his constituency providing sanitary needs, additional class rooms, library, computer rooms, Drinking water etc. For the benefit of poor, lower middleclass he strove and started a new government first grade college at Car Street.
Bhat was the chairman and member of the State Women Welfare, Minority Development, SC and ST development, urban development and rural development committees.
Ekanath K Thakur
Ekanath K Thakur was a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha from 2002 to 2008. He was a Member of the Parliamentary Standing Committees 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. He was the President of Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture from 2004 to 2006.
After nationalisation of the Banks in July 1969, Thakur along with a few others, took initiative in forming the All India Confederation of all Bank Officers in this country. He was its founding vice-president and later, he became its All India President representing all the Bank Officers in India. In 1973, he was elected as the national Secretary General of All India Coordination Committee of Officers Organisations.
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. He was elected as General Secretary of the World Bank Network (India) for Parliamentarians of the World before his retirement as MP.
Awards received by him from NGOs and social organisations include Samaj Ratna award, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar award, Sane Guruji award among others.
Saratchandra Shenoy
Saratchandra Shenoy, born in 1953, won the National Award for Konkani literature in 1999 from the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, for his first collection of Konkani poems Antarnad. He has attended State and National level poet meets, like the National Symposium of Poets (Sarva Bhasha Kavi Sammelan) at Santi Niketan, South Indian Poet’s Meet at Thunchan Parambu, among others.
His creative and critical works (Konkani, English and Malayalam) have appeared in numerous periodicals, anthologies and special issues of Kerala, Goa, Karnataka and in the souvenir of the Konkani Sammelan 2008 of Northern California, USA. Many institutions and associations at literary, social and cultural levels have honoured him – by All India Konkani Parishad in 2001 – ‘Konkani Sahitya Seva Ratna’ title given by Vyshanava Rathne Monthly in 2008.