Tonse Madhava Ananth Pai (30 April 1898 – 29 May 1979), was an Indian

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

educationist Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Var ...

banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

and

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

, most well-known for building the university town of

Manipal Manipal is a suburb and university town within Udupi, in coastal Karnataka, India. Manipal is located five kilometres away from the centre of Udupi City, in Udupi District, Karnataka (state) in south western India. It is administered by the Udup ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. He was the first to start a private, self-financing medical college offering

MBBS Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery ( la, Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae; abbreviated most commonly MBBS), is the primary medical degree awarded by medical schools in countries that follow the tradition of the United King ...

in India. Pai established the

Kasturba Medical College Kasturba Medical College, Manipal and Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, together known as KMC, are two private medical colleges in coastal Karnataka, India, established in 1953.Manipal Institute of Technology Manipal Institute of Technology (shortened MIT Manipal) (formerly Manipal Engineering College) is a private constituent institution of Manipal Academy of Higher Education that specializes in engineering. MIT contains 17 academic departments an ...

in 1957, which was followed by a string of other education institutions including Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Manipal Pre-University College. He, along with his brother Upendra Ananth Pai, also established

Syndicate Bank Syndicate Bank was one of the oldest and major commercial banks of India. It was founded by Upendra Ananth Pai, T. M. A. Pai and Vaman Srinivas Kudva. At the time of its establishment, the bank was known as Canara Industrial and Banking Syndic ...

originally in

Udupi Udupi (alternate spelling Udipi; also known as Odipu) is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka. Udupi is situated about north of the educational, commercial and industrial hub of Mangalore and about west of state capital Bangalore by road. ...

, Karnataka, which has its headquarters now in Manipal and Bangalore. He was responsible for its popular

Pigmy Deposit Scheme Pigmy Deposit Scheme is a monetary deposit scheme introduced by Syndicate Bank, India . Money in amounts as small as five rupees can be deposited into an account on a daily basis, by a bank agent collecting the money from the account holder's door ...

Early life

Born in 1898, Tonse Madhava Ananta Pai belonged to a lower-middle-class household of Gowd Saraswath Brahmins of

Kallianpur Kallianpur (previously anglicised as Calliampore) is a hamlet of Tonse East village about six km from Udupi. It is a developed with all modern amenities like schools, college, hospital, good transport and communication facilities. The people ...

, a village from

Awards

Pai was conferred the

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, ...

by the

Indian government The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the Government, national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy lo ...

in 1972. He was awarded the degree of

D.Litt. Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Doctor ...

by the Karnataka University, Dharwad in 1973 and the Andhra University, Visakhapatnam in 1975. The

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

brought out a stamp commemorating Pai on 9 October 1999. Pai has also been recognized by

Ripley's Believe It or Not ''Ripley's Believe It or Not!'' is an American franchise founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims. Originally a newspaper panel, the ''Believe It or Not'' fea ...

as the person who has established the most number of educational institutions in his lifetime.TAPMI
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Early life

Awards

References

See also