All roads lead to central Mumbai's St. Regis Hotel on the January 13 for the Business Today Banking & Economy summit, followed by a spectacular award ceremony planned to honour India's Best Banks and Fintechs. Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad, Minister of State, Ministry of Finance, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, doyen in the field of finance & economy K.V. Kamath, and the crème de la crème of the Indian banking and financial services industry would all be in attendance.
During a day-long Summit comprising a dozen fireside chats and panel discussions, the best minds in the economy, banking, and financial markets will debate and talk about the future course of the domestic economy facing global headwinds, the role of banks and non-banks, digitisation, and sustainable finance challenges. The summit will kick off at 11.30 am with a fireside chat with Amitabh Chaudhry, who heads the country's third-largest private sector bank, Axis Bank. This chat titled 'Banking on a High: The Big Turnaround and Challenges Ahead" will set the tone for the day-long deliberations.
The highlight of the conclave would be the RBI Governor’s evening discussion on 'The Economy & Banking: Riding the Storm.'
The list of high-profile bankers who will be participating includes Hitendra Dave, CEO, HSBC India; Ashu Khullar, CEO, Citibank India; Kaustubh Kulkarni, Senior Country Officer, JP Morgan India; Sanjiv Chadha, MD & CEO, Bank of Baroda; V. Vaidyanathan, MD & CEO, IDFC First Bank; R. Subramaniakumar, MD & CEO, RBL Bank; Murali Ramakrishnan, MD & CEO, South India Bank; Pralay Mondal, MD & CEO, CSB Bank; and S Krishnan, MD & CEO, Tamilnad Mercantile Bank.
In fact, three former SBI chairmen will participate in the Summit: A.K. Purwar, Rajnish Kumar, and Arundhati Bhattacharya. Bhattacharya, who is currently the chairperson and CEO of Salesforce in India, will participate in a fireside conversation titled 'Tech and the Bank: Aligning the Two'.
K.V. Kamath, who went on to head the Shanghai-based New Development Bank set up by BRICS countries, will talk about the future of banking in an era of uncertainty. Kamath currently heads the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development. Kamath's session is just before the RBI Governor's session.
There will also be a panel discussion on non-banking finance companies, which are facing regulatory challenges post the collapse of infra financing institution IL&FS. Ramesh Iyer, Vice-Chairman and MD of Mahindra Finance, and Manish Shah, MD & CEO of Godrej Capital, among others, will join to discuss 'NBFCs: Responding with Resilience'.
There is also be an economists' panel with D.K. Joshi of CRISIL, Soumya Kanti Ghosh of SBI, and Madan Sabnavis of Bank of Baroda, which will discuss "Banking on the Economy".
To serve the underbanked and unbanked customers, a new differentiated banking model of payments banks and small finance banks has established its credentials in the past five years. A five-member panel of Jaspal Bindra, Executive Chairman, Centrum Group; Rajeev Yadav, MD& CEO, Fincare Small Finance Bank; Anubrata Biswas, MD & CEO, Airtel Payments Bank; Rishi Gupta, MD& CEO, Fino Payments Bank; and Sanjay Agarwal, MD & CEO, AU Small Finance Bank, will join to discuss what lies ahead.
The 27th edition of the BT-KPMG Best Banks & Fintechs Awards will begin in the evening with Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad, Minister of State for Finance, speaking about "serving the country" and "reinforcing the backbone of India's economy." This will be followed by a fireside chat with Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, on “Investing in Infrastructure to Drive Economic Growth”.
There are 13 awards to be given away, which include five quantitative awards and eight jury awards. The jury was presided over by K.V. Kamath, Chairperson of the National Bank for Infrastructure Financing and Development. Other members were Arun Kumar Purwar, former chairman, State Bank of India; Alice G Vaidyan, former chairman and managing director, GIC Re; A.P. Hota, former MD& CEO, NPCI Ltd; and Avinash Gupta, MD& CEO, Dun & Bradstreet. Make a dash to the award presentation to know who among the top banks won the Bank of the Year.
This year's Lifetime Achievement Award goes to someone who has made a significant contribution to banking and finance. Also, don't miss the "Most Consistent Transformation" Award, given out by the BT-KPMG jury for the first time.
The awards will be given away by Nitin Gadkari, Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad, and K.V. Kamath.
Also read: Business Today Banking & Economy Summit On 13th Jan In Mumbai