Mangaluru: Cashew baron, industry doyen Gurpur Sadanand Prabhu dies at 93

coastaldigest.com news network
March 4, 2018

Mangaluru, Mar 4: Cashew industry pioneer and founder of city based Achal Industries Gurpur Sadanand Prabhu passed away on Sunday morning (March 4, 2018). He was 93.

He died peacefully at about 4:30 a.m. at his residence due to old age, it is learned. He is survived by his wife Rohini Prabhu and three children, son Giridhar Prabhu and daughters Prafulla Kamath and Anuradha Shenoy.

He was a past president of Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry and was also actively associated with Mangalore Cashew Manufacturers Association. He was also a member of Rotary Club Mangalore North.

Last rites will be at his residence ‘Ananya’ at Bejai Kapikad Road at 12:00 noon today, followed by funeral at1:00 p. m. at his home town Gurpur, according to family sources.

Cashew industry leaders and past presidents of Karnataka Cashew Manufacturers Association Kalbhavi Prakash Rao, Bola Ramanath Kamath, Bola Rahul Kamath and others have condoled the demise of Sadanand Prabhu.

Personal Profile

Born in 1925, Sadanand Prabhu was a native of Gurpur town in the outskirts of the city. After completing his matriculation, he started his career as teacher and then moved into business.

Then on he joined as a partner with his relative in Konchady Appayya Shabhogue and Co, at Bunder. Subsequently he started Sadananda Prabhu and Co., a groundnut oil manufacturing unit.

Then in 1981, at the age of 55, he established Achal Industries, which was one of the first industries to start at the newly formed Baikampady Industrial Area. In 1983, he started his second unit Achal Cashews at Turkewadi, a small village in Maharashtra.

Today Achal is a Rs. 125 crore group comprising four family owned companies with manufacturing units at multiple locations and 950 employees. It became an exporter of processed cashew in 1984 and its products are now reaching North America, the EEC countries, Middle East and Japan. His son Giridhar Prabhu is presently the proprietor of the flagship unit Achal Industries.

According to M. N. Pai, General Manager of Achal Industries and director of three other Achal group companies, Gurpur Sadanand Prabhu had retired from business about two years ago due to his advancing age. “He was a self made man and always had a vision to build a customer friendly business. He was an innovator of several processes in cashew industry,” he said.

Sadanand Prabhu was known as an unassuming and simple person always clad in white dhoti and white shirt. He liked to encourage the younger generation and many entrepreneurs credit him with being their mentor.

He took pride in tax compliance and ethical business practices. Cashew industry being a labour intensive sector, he showed keen interest in employee welfare and always put the workers first. He was one of the first to introduce bus transport for workers. Every worker he employed was well taken care of for the contribution he or she did. Productivity linked wages is one of the innovations practiced at his cashew processing units which enable the labourers to earn more.

According to sources close to him, Sadanand Prabhu always believed that tax paid money is more worth than any other wealth. He was well known for insisting on full tax compliance in his own firms and also had a prodigious knowledge of commercial law. “He was always up to date in all the laws applicable to the industry and even the tax authorities respected him for his knowledge,” said M. N. Pai.

Comments

Mohammed
 - 
Sunday, 4 Mar 2018

Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un

Hari
 - 
Sunday, 4 Mar 2018

RIP sir.. Condolence to his family

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News Network
January 27,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 27: Leaders cutting across political parties in Karnataka condoled the demise of former minister Amarnath Shetty, who passed away on Monday after a prolonged illness.

Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa expressed “shock” over the death of the former minister. “May his soul rest in peace. My deepest condolences to his family members,” tweeted CM’s official Twitter handle.

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coastaldigest.com news network
May 15,2020

Mangaluru, May 15: Dakshina Kannada saw a record spike in the number of fresh COVID-19 cases today, which triggered panic among the people of the district, which is currently under orange zone.   

According to the mid-day bulletin of the Department of Health and Family Welfare, as many as 16 people from Dakshina Kannada tested positive for the covid-19. 

Among them 15 are the Gulf returnees who were brought by an Air India Express special flight from Dubai to Mangaluru International Airport on May 12. 

As many as 179 repatriates had landed at Mangaluru Airport. Among them 125 are quarantined in Dakshina Kannada, 49 in Udupi and five in Uttara Kannada districts.  

Meanwhile, a 68-year-old woman from Surathkal area in Mangaluru, who is suffering from Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) was also tested covid-19 positive.

This is the highest number of cases reported in a single day since first case registered in the district on March 22 when Dubai-bound youth from Bhatkal was tested positive. 

With this the total number of covid-19 cases in the district mounted to 50 including five deaths. Many of them have returned home after recovery.

3 members of a family test positive

According to Deputy Commissioner Sindhu B Rupesh, three members of a same family are among 15 gulf returnees who are tested positive.  They are a 45-year-old man, his 33-year-old wife and their 6-year-old child. 

Six among those who tested positive today are above 60 years of age, said the deputy commissioner. 
 

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coastaldigest.com web desk
March 2,2020

New Delhi, Mar 2: The bloodthirsty arsonists allegedly hired by pro-CAA politicians in the capital of India to target Muslims, did not spare even the house of a Muslim leader of BJP.

Akhtar Raza, the BJP’s minority cell vice-president for the Delhi Northeast district, is now not in a position to share his pain with anyone. 

Even the police hadn’t come to his rescue, when the mob raising “Jai Sri Ram” slogans burnt down his house at Bhagirathi Vihar Nalla Road in northeast Delhi last week. 

“They were chanting slogans. Around 7pm, they started throwing stones at us. I called for police help. But the police asked me to leave. We managed to flee before they burnt my house and destroyed everything,” Raza, who returned today to witness the destruction, told media persons. 

“Those who attacked us were not locals. They were outsiders. They managed to identify and burn down all the 19 houses belonging to Muslims in this lane,” Raza said.

Apart from all the belongings in the house of Raza, the arsonists also have burnt down six vehicles belonging to his family. 

Raza is sad that no one from BJP contacted him after the violence even though he has been serving the party and promoting its ideology for past five years. “No party leader contacted me. There was no phone call. There was no relief or special treatment or anything,” Raza said.

Interestingly, Raza is still indentifies himself as a BJP leader. “I belonged to BJP. I may continue in the party,” he said.

The locality remained tense on Sunday too. On Monday, several groups distributed relief materials among people who had queued up to collect them. In front of Raza’s house is a lane from which several bodies of innocent Muslims have been recovered.

Comments

Fairman
 - 
Monday, 2 Mar 2020

He deserves it.

How  a Muslim and being a leader can  accept ideologies of such a hat mongers.

 

These people with such a ideolgies can never be the friend of not Muslims and  also good secular Hindus.

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