A brief chronology of events in Banking Industry/State Bank of India

Year Month Date Event 1720 Government Bank of Bombay established at Bombay (now Mumbai). 1770 Bank of Hindostan comes into existence at Calcutta (now Kolkata) as first to introduce its own paper money which of course was not recognized as legal tender 1786 General Bank of India formed. 1788 Carnatic Bank established at Madras (now Chennai). 1806 June 2 Bank of Calcutta established -It was later renamed as Bank of Bengal 1809 Jan 2 Bank of Calcutta becomes Bank of Bengal circulating their own currency notes as paper money to be accepted later on as valid legal tender for public transactions extending the status equally to other presidency banks viz. Bank of Bombay and Bank of Madras. 1819 Aug 16 Massacre of Peterloo at St. Peters Field, Manchester, occurred killing large number of men and women who had joined a rally of workers. 1829 Aug 17 Union Bank established 1840 Apr 15 Bank of Bombay is established 1843 July 1 Bank of Madras is formed 1861 Paper Currency Act is passed 1865 Allahabad Bank is established.This was the first fully Indian owned Bank 1866 Presidency Banks at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras are granted the status of bankers to the Government of India. 1874 Alliance Bank of Simla is established 1876 Presidency Banks Act is passed. 1884 Oct A resolution demanding fixation of 8 hours of work in a day at the maximum was passed by Workers Organisation of America (WOA) 1886 May 1 Strike by workers of Chicago where merciless killings at a large scale took place. 1887 Nov 11 August Spice, who alongwith 3 other trade union leaders was hanged for trade union activities, said seconds before his death “…A day will come where our silence will be more louder than our words”. 1890 May Day (1st May) was internationalized. 1895 Punjab National Bank is established. 1906 Bank of India and Canara Bank come into existence. 1907 Indian Bank is established. 1911 Central Bank of India is established. 1919 ILO (International Labour Organisation) is formed. 1920 July 09 Imperial Bank of India Indian Staff Association is formed under the Benevolent Societies Act at Calcutta (now Kolkata). It was duly registered under Indian Trade Unions Act only on 24th May’1932. 1920 Oct 31 AITUC formed under Lala Lajpat Rai's presidentship at New Delhi 1921 Jan 27 Imperial Bank of India established by merging 3 Presidency Banks –Bank of Bengal, Bank of Bombay and Bank of Madras with their 70 offices/ branches throughout the country.. 1923 India falls in line in observing 1st May as May Day 1926 Indian Trade Unions Act comes into existence 1935 Reserve Bank of India established as Government of India’s Central Bank. Sir Osborne A. Smith, who was earlier one of the two Managing Directors of the Imperial Bank of India, was appointed as its first Governor. 1937 Indian Overseas Bank established –founder being M. Chidambaram Chettyar. 1946 Apr 20 All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) founded. This is as claimed by AIBEA itself but there is another version that it was established in September’1950 at Jullundur with Soumendranath Tagore, President, All India Imperial Bank of India Indian Staff Federation, elected as the first President and Dayal Das elected as the first General Secretary. In the next conference of AIBEA that followed on 4th March’1951 at New Delhi, G.G. Mehta of Bombay and Roshan Lal Malhotra of Imperial Bank of India Indian Staff Association, Jullundur, were elected as President and General Secretary respectively. 1946 Aug 01 First ever Strike in Imperial Bank of India by Imperial Bank of India Indian Staff Association continuing for 46 days. It was withdrawn on the 15th September’1946. 1946 Sep 26 Indian Banks Association (IBA) is formed at Bombay (now Mumbai) with 22 members which figure has since risen to 159 members. 1947 May 3 INTUC (Indian National Trade Union Congress) formed at New Delhi 1947 Oct All India Imperial Bank of India Indian Staff Federation (later named as All India State Bank of India Staff Federation) comes into existence. 1948 July 1 Industrial Finance Corporation of Indiia (IFCI) is set up. 1955 Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS) forms its own trade union known as Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) 1955 July 1 State Bank of India is formed by replacing Imperial Bank of India. It becomes the first Bank in India to be nationalized. 1955 Dec 28 Pen down strike observed by State Bank of India employees in response to the call given by All India State Bank of India Staff Federation seeking modifications in Sastry Award. This was followed by strike on 6th and 7th January’1956. Mohanlal Majumdar, the then Secretary of the All India State Bank of India Staff Federation was arrested in Calcutta. 1956 Staff Welfare Scheme introduced by State Bank of India by allocating an amount of Rs.10 Lakhs as necessary measure to start with. 1958 New Delhi Local Head Office, a new Circle, opened by State Bank of India. 1959 State Bank of India (Subsidiary Banks) Act is passed enabling State Bank of India to take over 8 former State associated banks as its subsidiaries. 1960 Mar 21 National Industrial Tribunal, popularly known as Desai Award, constituted by Government of India. It was headed by Justice K.T. Desai. Published on 30th June’ 1962, the Award was implemented in two parts (1) with effect from 1/1/1962 and (2) with effect from 30/7/1962. 1960 Mar 7 All India indefinite strike in State bank Begins. Major demands included interim relief and payment of additional bonus for 2 ½ months with effect from 1956. It was called off on Federation Secretary Charles Coutto’s telegram ‘Acceptable solutions arrived’. Employees resumed duties on 25/3/1960 1964 Aug 1 Kanpur Local Head Office, a new Circle with 88 branches and 42 sub offices, opened by State Bank of India. 1964 Dec 1 Ahmedabad Local Head Office, a new Circle, opened by State Bank of India. 1965 Feb 1 Hyderabad Local Head Office, a new Circle with 61 branches and 41 sub offices, opened by State Bank of India. 1967 Dec 23 Social Control Bill introduced by the Finance Minister of India, Morarji Desai. The bill, by adding a clause as 36AD in Section 15 of the Banking Regulation Act, aimed at drastically curbing trade union activities of bank employees. 1968 Feb 28 Strike by employees in all the banks including State Bank of India in protest of Clause 36AD incorporated through Social Control Bill introduced by the Finance Minister of India, Morarji Desai. The strike was a tremendous success. 1969 July 19 Nationalisation of Banks -14 major Banks in India nationalized by the Government of India. 1970 Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) is formed. 1971 Oct 01 State Bank of India’s Banyan Tree emblem changed to ‘Shoonya’ (Zero) as a result of personal initiative taken in the matter by the Bank’s Chairman R.K. Talwar. 1972 Jul 1 Patna Local Head Office, a new Circle, opened by State Bank of India. 1972 Jul 1 Bhopal Local Head Office, a new Circle, opened by State Bank of India. 1975 Jun 26 National Emergency promulgated in India by the Prime Minister of the country Indira Gandhi. 1975 Aug 15 Top leadership of All India State Bank of India Staff Federation met Indira Gandhi, the Indian Prime Minister, in the form of a delegation apprising her of the problems faced by the bank employees during National Emergency in the country. 1976 Jan State Bank of India joins IBA (Indian Banks Association) as its full fledged member. 1978 Apr 1 First Director of the Central Board of State Bank of India representing workmen appointed with Nirmal Chaudhary as the first incumbent. After his death in December’1982, he was replaced by M. R. Awasthi, the then President of AISBISF, who served as such for two terms. 1980 July 15 Nationalisation of Banks -6 other Banks in India nationalized by the Government of India. With this Government of India owned banking in the country rose to 91%. 1982 Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) formed. 1982 Nirmal Chaudhary, Secretary, AISBISF, falling sick, he hands over his charge to M.R. Awasthi as acting Secretary of the Federation at its headquarters at Kolkata. 1982 Dec Nirmal Chaudhary is no more. As decided by the affiliates of the AISBISF, M. R. Awasthi from Lucknow and P. Lakshmi Narasaiah from Hyderabad were authorized to jointly act as Spokesmen of the Federation as an interim measure. 1983 Oct 25 General Council Conference of the AISBISF is held at Patna unanimously electing M. R. Awasthi and P. Lakshmi Narasaiah respectively as President and Secretary of the Federation. 1985 Employees of Lal Imli (BIC) at Kanpur went on indefinite strike for 18 days demanding fixed working hours. They won the battle after local Court intervened. It was fixed hours of work with one day weekly off and half an hour as lunch recess. 1986 Nov 20 National Convention on Financial Institutions held at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. The convention was organized by Mohan Kumar Mangalam, a minister in the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s cabinet. 1993 Oct 29 Pension Scheme introduced in other banks (other than banks like State Bank of India) in terms of the settlement signed at the level of the industry. 1995 July 29 State Bank of India Staff Association (Bengal Association consisting of several states of North India) celebrates its Platinum Jubilee at Kolkata. 2005 June 2 8th Bipartite settlement concluded between IBA (Indian Banks Association) and NCBE/ AIBEA/ other unions. 2007 June 29 Government of India acquires the entire Reserve Bank of India shareholding in State Bank of India consisting of over 314 million equity shares at a total amount of over 355 billion rupees. 2010 Apr 27 9th Bipartite settlement concluded between IBA (Indian Banks Association) and NCBE/ AIBEA/ other unions providing an over all increase of 17.5% in employees wage structure. 2010 May 24 Payment of Gratuity Act (amended) made operative raising gratuity limit from 3.5 lakhs to 10 lakhs with effect from date.

There has been a demand by my readers of Evolution of Banking system in India to let them know more on the subject preferably in a chronological order and keeping such a requisition in mind I am adding some more details in the matter. In fact this extract has been taken by me from my book ‘Beyond the barriers’ (under publication). The table so reproduced is not that exhaustive but briefly covers the salient events occurring in the Banking industry/ State Bank of India, more so in the context of the relative trade union movement. There are certainly more of details worth quoting on the subject but they are avoided at the moment for want of space. I  may take them up in the next opportunity that comes my way for the purpose availing necessary chance in the matter.
Link:Evolution of Banking system in India
         A cursory look on pension in State Bank
         http://gallery-neelkanth.blogspot.in/2012/04/my-book-beyond-barriersa-note-on.html

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