The 23rd Skoch Summit looked at the issues of financial deepening through the prism of financial inclusion, managing inflation, technology infusion, infrastructure development, improved governance and an enabling policy framework. A parallel theme running through the conference was the goal of reaching and sustaining near double-digit growth rates and the role of financial inclusion in inclusive growth
| 23rd Skoch Summit: Curtain Raiser |
From L to R: J Sriram, CEO-Mobile Commerce Venture, Bharti Airtel Ltd; K C Chakrabarty, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India; Sameer Kochhar, Chief Editor & Chief Executive Officer, Skoch; C Rangarajan, Hon’ble Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister; Hari Sankaran
Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, IL&FS
The presentations at the opening plenary set the tone for the conference deliberations as speakers stressed that for financial inclusion to promote growth, it has to move from opening an account in the bank, to regular savings and finally to a relationship which enables the borrower to access loans on a regular basis. In addition, adequate attention should be paid to organising the demand side of the credit delivery by organising financial literacy and financial counselling services for the poor. Financial inclusion should not be treated synonymous with rural poverty as a large number of people are migrating to the urban areas. |
| Banking Power Panel: Financial Deepening - Banking Imperatives |
From L to R: Sameer Kochhar, Chief Editor & Chief Executive Officer, Skoch; Santanu Paul, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, TalentSprint Pvt Ltd; M V Tanksale, Executive Director, Punjab National Bank; K Ramakrishnan, Chief Executive, Indian Banks’ Association; K C Chakrabarty, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India; S Sridhar, Chairman & Managing Director, Central Bank of India; M Narendra, Executive Director, Bank of Baroda; A K Srivastava, Chief General Manager, NABARD
RBI has asked banks to prepare a three-year roadmap for financial inclusion in a bid to take the banking services to all households in the country. Following RBI’s line of intention, bankers too are concentrating more on financial inclusion in the villages and semi urban areas. While the Central Bank of India aims to include 40,000 villages in next three years,, Bank of India plans to increase its number of no-frill accounts to 1 crore in next two years from the existing 35 lakh. Banks are seen increasingly partnering technology partners for such programmes. It was concluded that technology is available, what is required is a business model and a delivery model. |
| Technology Power Panel: Is Cloud Ready for India? |
From L to R: Neeta Verma, Senior Technical Director, National Informatics Centre; Alok Bharadwaj, Senior Vice President, Canon India; Sameer Kochhar, Chief Editor & Chief Executive Officer, Skoch; N Vijayaditya, Controller of Certifying Authorities, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology; T Srinivasan,Managing Director, VMware Software (India) Pvt Ltd; Venkatesh Iyer, EMC Data StorageSystems (India) Pvt Ltd; Umesh Bellur, IIT-B Mumbai; D Krishnan, Principal Consultant -Program Management Unit, Department of Information Technology
The panel discussed the pros and cons of cloud computing. Many speakers asked the question: Is India ready for the cloud? Virtualization was considered as an essential first step towards harnessing the benefits of cloud computing. Even as public clouds were setting new cost benchmarks, private clouds were not far behind. Security concerns were discussed and speakers informed that security stacks were getting integrated at various levels. Questions were raised as to how do we move from the physical to a virtual world |
| Financial Deepening - Pension & Insurance Imperatives |
From L to R: Sayee Srinivasan, Head - Product Strategy, Bombay Stock Exchange Ltd; G Srinivasan,
Chairman & Managing Director, United India Insurance; H Sadhak, Chief Executive Officer, LIC Pension Fund Ltd; Bibek Debroy, Distinguished Fellow, Skoch Development Foundation; M Ramadoss, Chairman & Managing Director, New India Assurance; Rani S Nair, Executive Director, PFRDA; Sameer Kochhar, Chief Editor & Chief Executive Officer, Skoch; A S Narayanan (Head - Bancassurance, Group & NRI Business),Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance
Key issues that emerged at this session were affordability, reach and diversity in the product portfolio. The identification of agents for small ticket policies and enhancing the penetration of general insurance was discussed at length. Pensions were the topic of one presentation, highlighting low-cost pension options. It was also important to improve the depth of the debt market and provide risk-adjusted returns. Speakers concurred that the need of the hour was simple products designed for people with erratic incomes delivered through low cost operations. |
| Special Session: India on the Growth Turnpike |
From L to R: Urjit R Patel, President (Business Development), Reliance Industries Ltd; Ashima Goyal, Professor, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research; Joseph Massey, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, MCX Stock Exchange Ltd; C Rangarajan, Hon’ble Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister; Manoj Paul, COO (W), Bharti Airtel Ltd; Vijay L Kelkar, Former Chairman, 13th Finance Commission; Vinita Bali, Managing Director, Britannia Industries Ltd; Sameer Kochhar, Chief Editor & Chief Executive Officer, Skoch; Ajit Ranade, Chief Economist, Aditya Birla Group; Jahangir Aziz, Chief Economist, JP Morgan
India is facing two challenges in attaining its rate of growth. The first challenge could be agriculture where it needs to grow at four per cent for regional development, better food security and reduction in poverty. Second, infrastructure is one of the major challenges too — especially the power sector. The economy can comfortably grow at 9 per cent, provided the savings rate is 36-37 per cent and the capital-output ratio sustains around 4 per cent. On the whole, speakers expressed optimism across sector but there was some concern about how the growth process will be sustained. Many speakers referred to the book released by the Skoch Development Foundation, saying that the issues raised in the book were extremely valid and cogent. A case in point was the convergence of growth rates within the country. It was also felt that as a developing country, the country that really needs to get its savings to its investors and not expose the country to external vulnerabilities. Ways of liberalizing the financial sector needed to be explored rather than put in more regulation and make the cost of financial intermediation much higher. There also seems to be consensus at the policy makers’ level, at the politicians’ level and at the general public level that physical infrastructure is very important.
|
|
|
Summit Details 
