XLRI hosts annual Finance Symposium GNOSIS 2018

NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 22: Bankers, entrepreneurs and over 150 corporate and student delegates gathered together to discuss the state of banking and finance industry in India at the ninth edition of GNOSIS 2018, XLRI’s Annual Finance Symposium, conducted by the Finance Association of XLRI (FINAX).

FINAX is a committee of people with a flair for Finance and related fields, with all its potential strives to promote finance related activities and careers for the students of XLRI. The symposium saw Dr Rajeev Lall - Founder & CEO, IDFC Bank deliver the keynote address on ‘Banking and financial services in India: The expanding horizon’. He gave a rousing speech on how banks and other financial institutions can maintain a balance between social responsibility and commercial viability, by addressing all stakeholder needs.

The keynote speech was followed by a panel discussion on ‘Consolidation of the Banking Industry in the wake of NPAs’ by four panellists including 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 a 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. The panel discussion was followed by a session with Samit Ghosh- Founder, MD & CEO of Ujjivan Small Finance Bank as the guest speaker. He spoke about his journey on how he founded Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, its current business model, the challenges he faced and Ujjivan bank’s future goals.

The second panel discussion on ‘Future of Alternative Investments in India’ was participated by 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 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.

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.