The Microfinance and banking sector have lost an expert and committed leader with the passing of Dr P Satish, the executive director of Sa-Dhan, the micro-lending organisation.
The 65 year old, former Chief General Manager of NABARD, was a highly respected banking and finance professional. He suffered a massive cardiac arrest in New Delhi on Sunday morning. He is survived by wife and two daughters, both kathak dancers.
Hailing from Hyderabad, Satish, who is a linguist too, rose steadily in a long career of four decades. He began by qualifying in the Reserve Bank officers recruitment in the mid 1980s. He had joined Sa-Dhan, in 2015, after leaving the National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development (NABARD) from where his parting was not all that happy.
Industry friends felt his expertise was being under utilised there. “Satish was a Chairman, NABARD could have had, but never had”, described one who closely worked for decades with him.
An unassuming personality with a pleasant demeanour, Satish made a difference to many lives at the ‘bottom of the pyramid’ through his domain expertise and informed and caring decisions at the NABARD. He headed the Micro Credit Innovations Department (MCID).
In the MFI sector, where giants like the Nobel laureate, Mohd Yunus of Bangladesh pioneered with his Grameen Bank movement and which has taken strong roots in India, Satish’s contributions will be lasting.
A highly regarded Hyderabadi
Satish brought his strong academic background and wide reading to good effect in his handling of difficult issues in micro credit lending and schemes related to the poor and their proper implementation throughout his long innings.
He obtained a PhD in agricultural credit markets from the University of Chandigarh, Punjab. Before that, he did his MS in Economics from the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, US.
From his school days in Hyderabad, Satish was always studious and a topper. He studied in Aliya Jr College, graduated from the Nizam College in BA. Then he did his MBA from Osmania University with distinction.
In the 1970s, at the entrance of the Lal Bahadur stadium in Hyderabad was the ISCUS (Indo-Soviet Cultural Society). One of the regular visitors and common face was a thin, bespectacled, young man by the name P Satish. A voracious reader, he also learnt many languages.
In a global competition organised by the Soviet Union in 1978, Satish won the 3rd prize. The Russian Embassy in India organised an event and felicitated him at the Salar Jung Hall of the Nizam College, where he was in the final year. He was also sponsored for a trip to the Baltic countries, recalled N N P Sankaram, a classmate, family friend and banker.
Having learnt Russian and his deep interest in Communism, Satish turned into a sort of expert on the Soviet Union, a superpower of those times. His knowledge of communism and the United Nations were amazing.
I recall at quiz competitions around 1977-82, no question on these subjects would pass him. He knew all the countries recognised by the UN, their capitals, currencies etc. We used to call him comrade Satish.
Years later, at a quiz organised at the headquarters of NABARD, Satish answered most of the questions that remained unanswered by the participants and were thrown open to the audience, recalled a colleague.
Distinguished career
Satish also travelled widely, both in India and abroad. His job and his keen interest in academic contributions took him to many conferences globally as well as on study visits to projects in rural parts of the country on micro credit.
His defining stint was in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh as the deputy district manager. It was the beginning of the self help groups (SHGs) movement encouraged by the NABARD. Satish was instrumental in driving the programme. In later years at a senior position, this experience helped him in fine tuning and making many programmes linked to SHG financing very effective, recalled Mr P Mohaniah, his senior and former Chief General Manager, AP based in Hyderabad.
He was always forthright in his views. Never hesitated to call a ‘Spade a spade,’ though in a soft manner. Satish was a globetrotter and travelled over 120 countries both officially and on holiday. He wrote extensively on the MF sector and his work always focussed on the poor and how to empower them, Mohaniah said.
In his new role at Sa-Dhan, Satish focussed his full energies to persistently engage with the Reserve Bank of India, Government and banks to highlight the problems of small lenders.
The respect he commanded and the insights he showed very often met with a favourable response from the regulators for the MFIs. Satish played a critical role in streamlining self-regulation of the Indian microfinance industry.
He was a member of the Financial Inclusion Advisory Committee of the RBI, the SHG-Bank Linkage Programme, Strategic Advisory Board of NABARD, and the governing council of Bankers’ Institute of Rural Development (BIRD), Lucknow.
He was also on the steering committee of the PM S VANidhi scheme of the ministry of housing & urban affairs and the microfinance sub-group of the NITI Aayog. The SVANidhi scheme catered to lending street vendors at a low interest, especially affected by the Pandemic. He was a director on the boards of MUDRA (2015-20) and India Post Payments Bank (2018-21).
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