The birth centenary of Late Shri Shripad S. Talmaki was celebrated in the year 1968. The Centenary celebrations were held under the auspices of Rao Bahadur Shripad S. Talmaki, Birth Centenary Celebrations Committee on which the co-operative credit, housing, consumers, eduction and other sectors, which were dear to late Shri Talmaki, were presented.

Late Shri Shripad Subrao Talmaki was one of the greatest pioneers of co-operative movement in India. His prophetic vision and constructive genius have made the benefits of co-operation a reality in our daily life. The gospel of co-operation, sanctified and reinforced by a life time of his dedicated service to the great cause, has illumined the path of peace and harmony in hundreds of homes today and has almost revolutionized our concept of social behavior and collective living.

He took up the challenge and began his work in social and co-operative spheres with his own community as his field of experiments. The first institution he started was Shamrao Vithal Co-operative Credit society in the year 1906 which is now known as Shamrao Vithal Co-operative Bank. He realized that if co-operation could save the people from the clutches of money lenders and shop keepers it could as well help them to be independent from the landlords. Shri Talmaki studied the problem, and Read how it was being tackled in the co-operatively advanced countries , and prepared a paper on “Co-operative Housing”.

This paper presented by him to the Bombay Provincial Co-operative Conference at Poona in 1913 led to the formation of Bombay Co-operative Housing Association in March 1914, with Shri Talmaki as its Secretary. Meanwhile, he presented a similar paper in a meeting of the members of his community in Hirabaug Hall, in January 1914 at which a provisional committee was formed which met every month, discussed pros and cons of his scheme for co-operative housing society, prepared plans enrolled members, collected funds and got the Saraswat Co-operative Housing Society registered in March 1915. The construction work was started in May 1915, at Gamdevi, Bombay , three buildings were completed by December 1915 providing decent accommodation at fair rents to 18 members who were at the same time tenants as well as co-owners. Thus the first co-operative housing society in India was formed and the foundations of the co-operative housing movement were laid.

The establishment of the Bombay Co-operative Housing Association had provided a forum for dissemination of knowledge, discussions on problems and even promotion of new schemes of development. Shri Talmaki saw the need for a similar agency extending to all the branches of the co-operative movement. So he prepared a paper on “Social and Educational Activities of Co-operative Societies” and presented it to the Provincial Co-operative Conference in 1917. Like his paper on Co-operative Housing in 1913, this paper also proved to be the initiator of action. The conference appointed a committee with Shri Talmaki as its secretary to formulate a concrete scheme. This committee prepared a prospectus for the setting up of the Bombay Provisional Co-operative Institute and the institute was registered in July 1918. Since the inception Shri Talmaki worked as its Hon. Secretary for 14 long years. The institute carried on the training and this is now known as the Maharashtra State Co-operative Union.

The Bombay Co-operative Housing Association which was formed in 1914 to promote the organization of co-operative housing societies in Bombay City and to guide and assist them in their working was later merged with the Bombay Provincial Co-operative Institute. The present Bombay Co-operation Housing Federation was established in the year 1948 due to the efforts of late Shri G.P. Murdeshwar, a collegue of late Shri Shripad S. Talmaki.