Magazine of March - 2010 - Rups.net

Shrinath S. Shiralkar –First Chitrapur Saraswat Deputy Governor of RBIThis article is a grateful response to the information received from some of our readers that the late Mr Shrinath S. Shiralkarwas the second Chitrapur Saraswat to be appointed on a prestigious position at the Reserve Bank of India; Dr. Subir Gokarn isnot the second (as mentioned in our Cover feature, KS, February 2010) but the third Chitrapur Saraswat to be so appointed.Our community stands prouder with this documentation. The first was Sir Benegal Rama Rau who was the fourth Governorof the Reserve Bank of India from 1 July, 1949 to 14 January, 1957. – EditorShrinath Shripad Shiralkarwas Deputy Governor of theReserve Bank of India from18 December, 1970 to 25July, 1976. He was born atGadag in North Kanara inMay 1915. After schoolingin Gadag, he was educatedat Fergusson College in Puneand the Royal Institute ofScience in Mumbai, gaining a double Master’s degreein Mathematics. A brilliant student, always achievinga First Class First in the University, he joined the civilservice after clearing the competitive Indian Audit& Accounts Service (IA&AS) examination in 1939,as an officer in the Accountant General’s office inMumbai. Thereafter, from 1944 to 1970, he workedin the Finance Ministry, rising to the level of JointSecretary in 1957 and Additional Secretary in 1965.In between, in 1954, he was deputed to Pondicherry asFinancial Adviser of the Government of India and alsoserved as the Accountant General of Madhya Pradeshbetween 1955 and 1957 being posted at Nagpur, thethen capital of Madhya Pradesh.In December 1970, he was appointed DeputyGovernor of the Reserve Bank of India under Mr. S.Jagannathan, the then Governor of the Bank. He servedas Deputy Governor until his retirement at the age of60. While in the Finance Ministry and the ReserveBank, he also served as a Director of several largeorganizations such as the Railways, ICICI, ShippingCorporation of India, SBI, Overseas CommunicationService (OCS) and so on. After retirement, he settleddown in Pune.Outside of his work, Shiralkar had a number ofpersonal interests. He was an expert photographer, andhad won prizes in international competitions. He likedto develop and print his own photographs and had setup a dark room in his house for this purpose. He wasa connoisseur of classical music, both Hindustani andWestern and had a huge collection of LPs. Besides, asan avid reader, he possessed a huge collection of books,including old original classics and works of fiction andnon-fiction by well known authors. He was also a keengardener.Both he and his wife, Vimal (nee HemalathaShedde), were ardent devotees of Divine Mothers,Sree Rama Devi and Sree Tara Devi. He spent his lastfew months at the Rama Sakthi Mission at Shaktinagar,in Mangalore, where he passed away in April 1981,after a prolonged illness. Vimal passed away inMumbai in December 2006 at the age of 86. They aresurvived by three sons - Bharat, Sanatkumar andGautam. Both Bharat and Gautam, are happilysettled in the US where both did their doctorates inMechanical Engineering. Sanatkumar did his Master’sin Electrical Engineering and returned to India; heretired in 2003 from Tata Infotech (now a part ofTCS).Kanara Saraswat Vol. 91, No.3, March 201059