The finance association of XLRI (Finax) recently hosted the 9th edition of Gnosis — XLRI’s annual finance symposium — in Mumbai. The symposium saw Rajeev Lall, founder & CEO, IDFC Bank, deliver the keynote address on ‘Banking and financial services in India: The expanding horizon’. He spoke on how banks and other financial institutions can maintain a balance between social responsibility and commercial viability.
Panel discussions
The keynote speech was followed by a panel discussion on ‘Consolidation of the banking industry in the wake of NPAs’ by Anshula Kant, MD, State Bank of India; Rahul Chawla, MD & Head of Structured Finance Trading and Structuring, Deutsche Bank; Sanjeev Lall, Partner, Udvik Infrastructure Advisors LLP; and K Balasubramanian, MD & Head of Corporate Banking, Citibank South Asia. The panellists conducted an enriching discussion about the current NPA crisis, mergers and acquisitions that can enhance the capital base, and suggested reforms to strengthen the banking industry and SMEs in India.
This was followed by a session with Samit Ghosh, founder, MD & CEO of Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, as the guest speaker. He spoke about how he founded Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, its current business model, the challenges he faced and the bank’s future goals.
The second panel discussion on ‘Future of alternative investments in India’ had Shamik Moitra, Managing Partner & CEO at Maitreyi Capital Advisors; Rahul Mehta, Director & India Country Head, Argonaut Private Equity; Srinivas Baratam, MD, Kriscore Advisors; and Inderjit Camotra, EVP, Centrum Financial Services Limited as panellists. The panel saw stimulating discussions about various categories of investments in India, legacy structures of alternative funds, and how to hedge the risks related to them, followed by a Q&A session.
This was followed by the next guest speaker, Umakanta Panigrahi, MD at Duff & Phelps, on the topic ‘Valuation of unconventional businesses’.
Award ceremony
The ‘Gnosis Excellence Awards’ ceremony saw distinguished XLRI alumni such as Sanjeev Lall and Shamik Moitra, along with Sandeep Upadhyay, MD & CEO, Centrum Infrastructure Advisors Ltd; Anita Belani, Operating Partner, Gaja Capital; VInay Razdan, CHRO, HDFC; and Santosh Das Kamath, MD & CIO, FIxed Income, Franklin Templeton, receive awards for their achievements in the sector. Each of them shared their experiences and memories of their time at XLRI, much to the delight of the audience.