Guwahati, July 2: The SBI felicitated seven eminent personalities and two entrepreneurs from the Northeast as part of the its foundation day, known as Bank Day, last evening at Srimanta Sankardeva International Auditorium here.

Those felicitated in the presence of chief guest Assam industry minister Chandra Mohan Patowary included Panchali Bhattacharjee (Tripura), Imchawati Kichu (Nagaland) and Dr Ravi Kannan, Jadav Payeng, Pabitra Rabha, Bishnu Khargaria, Laimwn Narzary (all from Assam), along with two entrepreneurs, Anil Mutha from Tripura and Abhijit Barooah from Assam.

Chief general manager P.V.S.L.N. Murty, general managers, SBI northeastern circle Digmanu Gupta and O.P. Mishra, along with other senior government officials, employees with their families besides bank's customers attended the felicitation where Patowary, thanking the bank's role in financial inclusion, urged the SBI to contribute towards strengthening the rural economy of the state.

As part of the day, the bank's northeastern circle organised an art competition for the children of its employees, donations to four NGOs and concluded with a cultural night at the auditorium.

The felicitation was followed by a programme of donation under CSR to four NGOs - Mission Smile, Guwahati Lion's Eye Hospital, International Vedanta Society of Guwahati and Arunachal Vikash Parishad from Itanagar for procuring medical equipment to school desks for their respective work area.

Apart from the nine felicitated in Guwahati, SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharjee felicitated two more personalities from the region at the SBI's corporate office on Saturday - Olympian gymnast Deepa Karmakar from Tripura and mountaineer Anshu Jamsenpa from Arunachal Pradesh, who set a world record in double ascent in Everest climbing.

The SBI was one of the sponsors of Anshu's world record attempt.

The SBI traces its origin from founding of the Bank of Calcutta in 1806, making it the oldest commercial bank in the Indian subcontinent.

Subsequently, the Bank of Madras merged with other Presidency Banks in British India, Bank of Calcutta and Bank of Bombay to form the Imperial Bank of India, which in turn became the SBI in 1955.

The SBI observes July 1 as its foundation day every year.