The Finance Association of XLRI (FINAX) hosted GNOSIS 2017, XLRI’s Annual Finance Symposium, on November 11 at The St. Regis, Mumbai. Sunil Kakar, MD & CEO at IDFC Ltd, delivered the keynote address at the summit, themed “Financial Services in India: The Road Ahead”.
This was followed by a discussion on ‘The Twin Balance Sheet Problem’ by five panelists including Ananth Narayan G, MD and Regional Head of Financial Markets at Standard Chartered Bank; Jayesh Mehta, MD and Country Treasurer at Bank of America NA.; Pradeep Khanna, MD and Head of Trading at HSBC India; Madan Sabnavis, Chief Economist at CARE Ratings; and Sameer Narang, Chief Economist at Bank of Baroda.
The discussion was moderated by journalist and author Tamal Bandyopadhyay. Panelists discussed the health of banking sector, appraised the recent recapitalisation of banks, and suggested reforms to strengthen the banking industry and debt markets in India.
The post-lunch session had an exciting line-up, with the Co-Founder and Head of Trading at Zerodha, Nithin Kamath, addressing the audience on the discount broking model and enlightened the delegates with his personal Zerodha story.
Investment banking
A second panel discussion was held on widening the scope of investment banking in India. The panel was moderated by Ms. Shrija Agrawal, National Deals Editor at Mint . “The session was interactive and energetic. It was really nice to have such good answers from the audience”, said Ms Agrawal. The panelists included Atul Mehra, MD and Co-CEO of JM Financial; Raj Kataria, co-founder and director at Arpwood Capital; . Narayanan Sadanandan, EVP and Group Head of Investment Banking at SBI Cap; Rajesh Vig, Partner, Advisory-Deals at PWC; and Ankur Khurana, Director of Investment Banking at Credit Suisse.
The discussion was followed by sessions from two guest speakers. First, Kunda Jadhav, Director at Barclays Shared Services, discussed the digital talent requirements and challenges in the investment banking industry. Next, Shashi Arora, MD and CEO of Airtel Payments Bank, spoke about how payment banks are game-changers for financial inclusion, rather than being just unviable business models.
Excellence Awards
‘GNOSIS Excellence Awards’ ceremony saw distinguished XLRI Alumni such as Sunil Kakar and Shashi Arora, in addition to Vikram Tandon, Head-HR India, HSBC Bank; Pankaj Sharma, CIO- Fixed Income, DSP Blackrock; and Sandeep Das, MD of Private Banking in Standard Chartered Bank; receive awards for achievements in their sectors.
Established in 1991, The Finance Association at XLRI [FINAX] is essential to the finance domain at XLRI. GNOSIS, which is in its 8th year, gets bigger and better, with a great speaker line-up of top bankers and entrepreneurs and over 150 corporate and student delegates attending the event this year.