4 GMs elevated as Executive Directors in PSBs

bl :NEW DELHI, SEPT 28: 2013

The Centre has elevated four General Managers in various public sector banks to the post of executive directors.

B.S.Rama Rao, who was General Manager at Andhra Bank, has been appointed as Executive Director at Vijaya Bank.

The Centre has appointed Mahesh Kumar Jain, who was General Manager at Syndicate Bank, as Executive Director of Indian Bank.

Atul Agarwal, who was General Manager at Central Bank of India, has been appointed as executive director of Indian Overseas Bank.

All these appointments will come into effect immediately.

R.K.Takkar, who was General Manager at Oriental Bank of Commerce, has been appointed as executive director at Dena Bank.

He will assume charge of his new role in February next year.

Entrepreneurship :Shravan & Sanjay Kumaran of Go Dimensions: Bangalore techies aged 12 and 14 develop apps

They stood before the 5,500 attendees at an SAP event in Bangalore, and talked about how to ideate and draw up a business plan.

ET :Shilpa Phadnis, TNN | 30 Sep, 2013, 10.59AM IST

BANGALORE: They make an adorable pair in their neat formal suits and shoes. 

And when they start talking, they have crowds hanging onto every word, often having them in splits with their experiences.

Shravan Kumaran and his younger siblingSanjay Kumaran are perhaps India's youngest entrepreneurs. 

Shravan, 14, is the president and Sanjay, 12, is the CEO of Go Dimensions, an app development unit that they founded two years ago from the bedroom in their Chennai home.

On Saturday, they stood before the 5,500 attendees at an SAP event in Bangalore, and talked about how to ideate and draw up a business plan.

"You should have a strong idea, self-confidence , a good business plan and know about sources of funding," said Sanjay with the confidence that you normally see in much older people. And he then went on to ask: "Have you heard of dad funding?" The crowd roared.

In the past two years, the two have developed eleven apps that are available on the Apple App Store and Google's Android Play Store. The apps have received over 35,000 downloads. Their first — Catch me Cop on the Apple App Store —was released last year. It was a game where a con escapes prison and a hunt is launched. There are chases through a desert, beach and a maze.

"Abdul Kalam once came to our school and he loved playing Catch me Cop," recalled Sanjay. Shravan is in Class 9 and Sanjay in Class 7 at the Vael's Billabong International High School in Chennai.

Today, a room in their home is a digital lounge filled with Apple Macs, iPads and SamsungGalaxy Notes. The 'after homework hours' are spent on coding and debugging test apps, while nibbling on cheese fritters and lasagna. Recently, they launched an action game called Extreme Impossible 5.

"We developed over 150 test apps before releasing the first app: Catch Me Cop... Another app, Alphabet Board, got a rating of 5 on the app store," said Shravan, who Steve Jobs for inspiring him.

"Some of the teachers told them they would be more productive at home than school," said their mother and former journalist Jyothi Lakshmi. But they are clear they will attend classes regularly, and also pursue their love for cricket and the keyboard.

The boys credit their father Kumaran Surendran, director with American security software company Symantec, for encouraging them to learn programming. They learnt the programming language QBasic when Shravan was in his fifth grade and Sanjay in his third grade.

The two have made presentations at TEDx and IIMBangalore . They hope to get at least 50% of smartphone users in India to use their apps.

Child Prodigies

Shravan Kumaran, 14, and younger brother Sanjay, 12, founded an app development unit, Go Dimensions

Their first app was a game, called 'Catch me Cop' where a con escapes prison and a wide hunt is launched for him.

They have developed 11 apps which are available on Apple App Store and Google's Android Play Store.

 You should have a strong idea, self-confidence , a good business plan and know about sources of funding.

Banks to pay for credit card frauds: RBI

Banks were required to get credit card swipe machines upgraded by September-end and have all the cards upgraded by November.
 TNN: 29 Sep 2013
MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of India has refused to extend the deadline for upgrading security on credit card swipe machines and has ordered banks to compensate cardholders in seven days if any fraud occurs on non-compliant terminals.

If the bank fails to refund the disputed amount in seven days, it has to compensate the cardholder with a penalty of Rs 100 per day until the date of payment. At present, dispute resolution is a cumbersome process and takes several weeks in case of credit card frauds.

Banks see the new directive as indicative of the central bank's seriousness on card security. After a rise in credit card frauds, the RBI had asked banks to add security features including an electronic chip and a secret PIN which the cardholder is required to punch in the terminal to authenticate payment. This feature was to come in force from July 1. But banks were behind schedule in both issuing chip cards and in upgrading terminals to meet the new security standards.

Since the entire industry was behind schedule, the RBI was forced to extend the deadline. Banks were required to get credit card swipe machines upgraded by September-end and have all the cards upgraded by November. But a few days ahead of the September deadline, banks have again said that they are not ready.

"Various banks have approached us, seeking further extension of the time line of September 30, 2013 for complying with the task of securing the technology infrastructure," the central bank said in a statement.

Pointing out that banks were told that there would be no further extensions, the RBI said, "It has been decided not to grant any further extension of time. Accordingly, banks not complying with the requirements shall compensate loss, if any, incurred by the cardholder using card at POS terminals not adhering to the mandated standards."

There are usually two banks in every credit card transaction. One that issued the credit card and the other that has installed the swipe machine. The RBI has said that the card issuing bank should ascertain in three days whether the fraud has taken in a non-compliant machine and within seven days refund the money to the cardholder. The card issuing bank will in turn recover the money from the bank which has installed the swipe machine.

நுகர்வோர் கடன்... இனி இல்லை 0% வட்டி!

நாணயம் விகடன்:

06 Oct, 2012013

தீபாவளி, கிறிஸ்துமஸ், புத்தாண்டு, பொங்கல்... என அடுத்துவரும் மாதங்களில் பண்டிகைகள் 

அணிவகுத்து நிற்கின்றன. வட்டி எதுவும் இல்லாமல் சுலபத் தவணையில் இந்தப் பண்டிகை காலத்தில் கடன் கிடைக்கும் என்பதால் வீட்டுக்குத் தேவையான பொருட்களை வாங்கிவிடத் திட்டமிட்டிருப்பவர்கள் பலர். ஆனால், வட்டி எதுவும் இல்லாத ஜீரோ பெர்சன்ட் திட்டத்தில் எந்த வங்கியும் கிரெடிட் கார்டு மூலம் பொருட்களை விற்கக் கூடாது என ஆர்.பி.ஐ. இப்போது உத்தரவு பிறப்பித்துள்ளது.

நாணயம் விகடன் 15.9.2013 தேதி யிட்ட இதழில் ஜீரோ பெர்சன்ட் வட்டி விகிதத்தில் நடக்கும் ஏமாற்று வேலைகள் குறித்து விரிவாக கட்டுரை வெளியிட்டோம். இப்போது ஆர்.பி.ஐ.யும் இதைத்  தடுக்கும் விதமாக இந்த அறிவிப்பை வெளியிட்டுள்ளது.

ஆர்.பி.ஐ. இப்படியரு அதிரடி உத்தரவு வெளியிடக்  காரணம், விற்பனையாகும் பொருட்களின் தொகையில் எவ்வளவு தொகை கடைக் காரர்களுக்குப் போகிறது, எவ்வளவு தொகை வங்கி களுக்கு வட்டியாகச் செல் கிறது என்பது நுகர்வோருக்கு தெரிய வேண்டும் என்பதற்குத்தான்.  

ஒரு பொருளின் விலை யில் தள்ளுபடி போக மீதமுள்ள தொகைக்கு    வட்டி விகிதம் என்ன?, செயல்பாட்டுக் கட்டணம் எவ்வளவு?,  மாதாமாதம் இ.எம்.ஐ. எவ்வளவு தொகை கட்டவேண்டும்  என்பதை எல்லாம் வாடிக்கையாளருக்கு தெளிவாக விளக்கிச் சொன்ன பிறகுதான் பொருளை விற்பனை செய்ய வேண்டும் என ஆர்.பி.ஐ. அறிவித்திருப்பதோடு, தனியார் நிதி நிறுவனங்களும் ஜீரோ பெர்சன்ட் வட்டி திட்டத்தில் கடன் தரக் கூடாது என்றும் சொல்லி இருக்கிறது.

வங்கிகளின் கடனுக்கான அடிப்படை வட்டி விகிதத்திற்கு கீழ் கடன் வழங்கக்கூடாது என்பதும் ரிசர்வ் வங்கியின் விதி களில் ஒன்று. மேலும், டெபிட் கார்டு மூலமாக பொருட்கள் வாங்கும்போது அதற்கு கூடுதல் கட்டணம் வசூலிக்கும் நிறுவனங்களின் தொடர்பை வங்கிகள் துண்டிக்க வேண்டும் எனவும் ஆர்.பி.ஐ. வலியுறுத்தியுள்ளது.

இதுவரை பெரும்பாலான கிரெடிட் கார்டு நிறுவனங்கள் ஜீரோ பெர்சன்ட் வட்டி விகிதம் எனச் சொல்லி கடன் தரும் தொகைக்கான வட்டியை உற்பத்தியாளர் தரும் தள்ளுபடி மற்றும் செயல்பாட்டுக் கட்டணம் மூலம் வசூலித்துவிடுவார்கள். இனிமேல் இப்படி செய்ய முடியாது. கிரெடிட் கார்டு மூலமாக ஆண்டுக்கு ரூ.11 ஆயிரம் கோடி  மதிப்பில் பொருட்கள் விற்பனை யாகிறது. இதில், ஆயிரம் கோடி ரூபாய் மதிப்பிலான பொருட்கள் இ.எம்.ஐ. முறையில் விற்பனையாகிறது. ஒரு பொருளை முழுத் தொகை கட்டி வாங்கும்போது 10% தள்ளுபடி கிடைக்கும். அதே பொருளை கிரெடிட் கார்டு மூலம் இ.எம்.ஐ.-ல் வாங்கும் போது இந்தத் தள்ளுபடி இல்லாமல் செயல்பாட்டுக் கட்டணம் 5% சேர்த்து 6 மாத இ.எம்.ஐ.-ல் கடனைத் திரும்பச் செலுத்தும்போது ஆண்டுக்கு 33%  வட்டி நம் கையைவிட்டுச் செல்லும்.  

ஆர்.பி.ஐ.-ன் இந்த அறிவிப்பால் பொருட்களை விற்கும் கடைகளுக்கு என்ன பாதிப்பு என வியாபாரிகளிடம் விசாரித்தோம்.

''ஜீரோ பெர்சன்ட் வட்டி  என்பது ஒரு வியாபார உத்திதான். இனிமேல் உற்பத்தியாளர் தரும் தள்ளுபடியுடன் லாபத்தை மட்டும் சேர்த்து பொருளின் விலையை நிர்ணயிப்போம். வட்டி சதவிகிதத்தை வாடிக்கையாளர்களிடம் சொல்லி, அதை வசூலிப் போம். தள்ளுபடி இல்லாத பொருட்களுக்கும் இதையே செய்வோம். இதனால் லாபத்தில் எந்த பாதிப்பும் வராது.

ஆனால், கடைகளுக்கு வாடிக்கையாளர்கள் வருவது குறையும். இதைத் தடுக்க, குறைந்த முன்பணத்தில் கடன் தருவோம். வாங்கும் வட்டி விகிதத்தைச் சற்று குறைத்து விளம்பரம் செய்வோம்'' என்கிறார்கள் வியாபாரிகள்.

ஆக, ஆர்.பி.ஐ. என்னதான் உத்தரவு போட்டாலும் பழைய வழக்கத்தை வேறு ஒரு பெயரில் கடைக்காரர்கள் தரவே செய்வார்கள். எனவே, வாடிக்கையாளர்கள்தான் உஷாராக இருக்க வேண்டும்.

 -  இரா.ரூபாவதி.

Powerful September :What lieswithin us Matters

What Lies within us matters....

What You Didn’t Know About Mukesh Ambani

Mukesh Ambani with his wife Nita

BY SASHA LALCHANDAN  in Luxpresso

When it comes to billionaire Mukesh Ambani, we all know everything about his professional life.

 He is the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries and is worth a staggering $27 billion. 

We look beyond his world famous business acumen.

Here are five things you didn't know about Mukesh Ambani.

Jet Setter: The business magnate gifted his wife a $60 million Airbus plane for her 44th birthday. The jet reportedly has been customised to possess an office, hi-end music systems, satellite television and wi-fi. In addition there is a master bedroom and a bathroom with a range of showers.

Car Story: Having always had a penchant for European cars, Mukesh Ambani owns 168. He favours the Mercedes, theBentley and the Maybach, his most expensive car to date. He was one of the first people to bring it into the country for an unbelievable Rs 5.25 crore.

Antilla: It is said home is where the heart is. But this 27-storey home has a lot more than heart. It consists of a ballroom, three helipads and a swimming pool. Considered to be the world's most expensive home, it cost Mukesh Ambani $1 billion. Too bad 'bad vaastu' is preventing him and his family from moving in. 

Jungle Adventure: Last year, the entire Ambani family holidayed at Kruger National Park in South Africa. It offers a range of private and luxurious stay packages that assure you the utmost comfort and privacy. Mukesh Ambani, a self confessed wildlife lover has stated in an interview that holidaying in places with 'clean air' and those that are 'in the midst of nature' make him feel like he has entered another world altogether.

Movie Buff: When it comes to entertainment, Mukesh Ambani doesn't ask for much. This billionaire is an avid movie watcher and not being able to go to a theatre doesn't stop him. In order to satiate his movie craving, Ambani has created, on the 8th floor of his new house, a massive 50 seat theatre. 

Image courtesy: Reuters

Now open: Overseas capital for unlisted firms

Shishir Sinha :BL :NEW DELHI, SEPT 27: 2013

The Government has lifted the curbs that prevented unlisted Indian companies from raising funds abroad.

Such companies can now list on foreign bourses without doing so in the domestic market.

The move will help corporate entities pay overseas debt as well as acquire companies abroad, without buying dollars at home.

Unlisted companies are those whose shares are not traded on stock exchanges. Before August 31, 2005, such companies were permitted to tap the overseas markets and get listed without any prior or subsequent listing here. Companies such as Sify and Rediff listed on American exchanges using this route.

After the curbs were imposed, some companies, such as online travel agency MakeMyTrip.com, set up a subsidiary abroad to raise funds and got that entity listed.

On Friday, the Finance Ministry said that the option to list abroad will initially be available for two years, on a pilot basis.

The Ministry has set some conditions for the use of this facility. One requires such companies to file a copy of their financial statements with domestic regulators. They will also have to be compliant with rules governing foreign investments by Indian companies.

ANALYST VIEWS

Dhirendra Kumar, MD of investment research firm Value Research, termed the Finance Ministry’s move as correcting an anomaly.

Anish Thacker, Tax Partner with EY, said the measure will allow Indian firms access overseas capital markets and possibly reduce their offshore interest burden. “Some safeguards and conditions have also been cited, which are understandable,” he added.

Mayuresh Joshi, Vice-President, Angel Broking, said the proposal will benefit companies that have significant overseas operations and that have taken on foreign debt to fund those businesses.

It will assist them in bridging the volatility in currency movements.

“Statistically, India’s external debt stands at $390 billion, of which, short-term debt (including residual maturity) stands at $172 billion. In a scenario of extreme rupee depreciation, such short-term debt adds to the interest-servicing pain of most corporates that have borrowed abroad,” he explained.

Rahul’s outburst: A watershed moment in Indian politics?

FP :Abhay Vaidya 46 mins ago

Barely two days before his outburst against the UPA government’s ordinance to counter a Supreme Court order disqualifying MPs and MLAs convicted in a criminal case, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi‘s body language had become a talking point among Pune’s editors and senior journalists.

Rather unusually, Gandhi had held a 90-minutue long informal exchange with a select group of journalists at the Balewadi stadium in Pune. 

This was the second leg of his Maharashtra tour and Gandhi took everyone by surprise, especially the top editors in Delhi, who later came to know that he had spoken extensively and informally on a range of subjects.

The issue of the controversial ordinance came up during that chat with journalists and Mr Clean’s cryptic response amply indicated that he disagreed with the government’s position.

 On hindsight, it was disappointing that none of the assembled journalists asked him about his brother-in-law Robert Vadra‘s controversial land deals in Haryana, especially as Gandhi seemed to be in a mood to talk.


During a Pune interaction with editors and journalists, Rahul Gandhi’s body language suggested that he did not see his political inexperience as a handicap but as an asset. Reuters

During a Pune interaction with editors and journalists, Rahul Gandhi's body language suggested that he did not see his political inexperience as a handicap but as an asset. ReutersDuring a Pune interaction with editors and journalists, Rahul Gandhi’s body language suggested that he did not see his political inexperience as a handicap but as an asset. Reuters
As the interaction came to a close, it became amply clear that this was a new avatar of the young scion of the Gandhi dynasty: not the same, indecisive, clueless, reluctant and inaccessible Congress vice-president that everyone spoke about.

Instead, Rahul Gandhi‘s body language suggested that he did not see his political inexperience as a handicap but as an asset, as much as his father Rajiv Gandhi did. He seemed to represent the same generational impatience with things going wrong in India, as did his father. Recall how Rajiv Gandhi was also welcomed into Indian politics as “Mr. Clean” who offered hope to a young generation.

There was a new air of confidence and freshness about Rahul Gandhi at the Pune interaction. “He is intelligent and not dumb as projected by the media,” was how one senior journalist present at that gathering reacted.

Rahul appeared genuinely warm and well-meaning and did not resemble the typical politician. As a part of his media strategy to woo journalists, Gandhi has been known to grace the weddings of relatively junior reporters on the Congress beat in the capital. In Pune, he shook hands with all the 25-odd journalists, exchanged a few words with each one of them and within two days, his media cell mailed these memorable pictures to them. Rahul did something similar with the police constables on duty around him and got pictures taken with them.

These tid-bits apart, the image that came across was that of an earnest and well-meaning Rahul Gandhi who had no airs about him. More importantly, his body language clearly indicated that he was now ready to take charge and willing to lead the Congress into the 2014 general elections.

With his outburst on the ordinance negating the Supreme Court’s verdict on convicted MPs and MLAs, Rahul Gandhi has pitched himself as the Congress’s prime ministerial candidate for 2014 as decisively and as controversially as Narendra Modi did.

If Modi’s elevation rubbed party patriarch LK Advani the wrong way, here was Rahul Gandhi virtually mocking at the entire UPA cabinet led by prime minister Manmohan Singh. His caustic condemnation of the ordinance is a snub not only to Singh but also to others in the cabinet such as Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Law minister Kapil Sibal and Information & Broadcasting minister Manish Tewari.

The 43-year-old Gandhi’s outburst on the ordinance marks a watershed moment in Indian politics because it decisively signals his arrival and emergence as the new face of the Congress party as it prepares for the 2014 general elections.

This moment signals decisively that the Gandhi dynasty is intact and the baton is ready to be passed on from Congress president Sonia Gandhi to her son. As over the past six decades, the Congress continues to be under the spell of the dynasty which has withstood rebellions right from the time of Kamraj during Indira Gandhi’s era down to Sharad Pawar in the Congress under Sonia Gandhi.

There is no question of any such rebellion against Rahul Gandhi who, like others in the dynasty, brings certain clear advantages to the Congress. The charge of being “autocratic” which is being applied to Narendra Modi, applies as much to Rahul Gandhi because it is his voice that will prevail over that of all others. Decisiveness will no longer be a trait seen in NaMo alone as RaGa too is beginning to show the same characteristic.

Unlike in the BJP which has a prominent anti-Modi faction articulated most eloquently by Sudheendra Kulkarni, the former aide of LK Advani, Rahul Gandhi is neither tainted nor handicapped by any such opposition. Like Modi for the BJP, he has emerged as the game-changer for the Congress as India hurtles towards the 2014 polls.

Outgoing SBI chairman Pratip Chaudhuri leaves poor investors, rich legacy

Sangita Mehta, ET Bureau | 25 Sep, 2013, 10.10AM 

In the uncertain world of Indian banking one thing is certain — any state-run bank which gets a new chairman will report a jump in provisioning in the very first quarter of new leadership and will see its profits erode and stock value dip. The standard answer to explain such a phenomenon used to be that the balance sheet had to be cleaned up.


However, that should be the least of the worries of the top four contenders to succeedPratip Chaudhuri as the chairman of State Bank of India when one of them steps in to steer the nation's biggest bank next month. Chaudhuri's ascent to SBI's throne in 2011 was no different from the experience of many public sector bank chairmen, when he had to set aside Rs 4,445.27 crore which had dragged the net profit for the March quarter earnings 99% to Rs 21 crore.

"We provided for a salary increase but we did not provide anything for pension on the argument that approval hadn't come," says Chaudhuri. "We (SBI) provided zero (pension). This is the worst thing that can happen. There was an elephant in the room. But we did not see it or chose not to see it. That was the most damaging thing for the bank."

Most chairmen carry on the older tradition and leave an equally dirty balance sheet for the successor to clean up. But not Chaudhuri. For quarter ending June 2013, State Bank of India's net profit was Rs 4,298.56 crore when he made provisions of Rs 600 crore for pension liabilities and said similar provisions need to be made in the next few quarters.



That led to the stock tanking 3.4% on the day of earnings. However, it will eliminate a more serious fall when the next quarter earnings are released.

"I want my legacy to be such that (nasty provisioning) should not come back again. We should correctly and rightly anticipate and not push things under the carpet," says Chaudhuri. "Investors understand that there are good years and not so good years, and that could be due to a variety of reasons. But this company is at least disclosing correctly what it is doing."

The legacy of the 23rd chairman of the SB may not just be about preparing for future shocks, but it will include solid customer care in a world where private sector is stealing a march over the public sector banks.

"He came in with a broom and continued to broom throughout partly because the economic condition was not in favour and partly because he did not create adequate income to compensate for higher provisions," says Hemindra Hazari, head of equity research at Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities.

"It is ironic that when he took charge there was inadequate provisioning for pension and the ghost returns when he departs as an LIC report revealed that the life expectancy of Indians will go up. Fortunately, he has not left to his successor to do the clean-up." Chaudhuri ended up as the right man at the wrong time.

His predecessor OP Bhatt's often used maxim that 'all bad loans are made in good times' must be ringing in his ears.

"He tried to control asset quality but the macro-economic condition did not support him," said Santosh Nayak, chairman of IFCI and former DMD of SBI.

State Bank of India may be bearing the brunt of the economic slowdown as bad loans are piling up. The stock has lost more than 40% since Chaudhuri took charge in April 2011. But the silver lining is that all other public sector banks are worse than SBI.

It is still the best performer among the PSU pack.

Although not as half as flashy as his private sector peers, Chaudhuri has pushed the giant elephant ahead in terms of customer friendliness, though it lacks many of the proactive approach of private banks. The master stroke was when Chaudhuri scrapped the pre-payment penalty for home loan borrowers even before the central bank mandated it for all lenders. That created an enormous amount of goodwill among customers who always viewed private home loan lenders as short-changing them.

It may just be a normal practice for any new bank branch that is opened to be air conditioned. For SBI it is like the Indian Railways ensuring clean platforms at railway stations. Imagine its 14,902 branches from as far away Yairipok in Manipur to Kathua in Jammu & Kashmir now being able to do business as in Nariman Point, Mumbai.

While most other public sector banks are losing the so-called low-cost deposit (CASA or current account savings account) to private sector rivals, SBI is the lone state-run lender that has lured customers' deposits which helped it keep the lending cost low.

SBI has also bid goodbye to lazy banking by pushing executives out of their comfort zones, and motivating them to reach out to clients, especially the small and medium segments.

"You cannot run the SME and corporate business as a factory," says Chaudhuri.

"In a home loan if you borrow and do not visit the bank for 25 years, nothing happens as it debits you regularly and that is all right. But if it is a small-scale industry or a business, some day they have to go to the bank saying 'my guarantee limits are falling short' or 'I urgently need an overdraft.'

We need someone to listen to them." At SBI, it is not the general manager sitting in Mumbai who handles clients from Nagpur, or Bhopal anymore, but the zonal offices in these smaller cities.

Although the entire sector is facing the problem of bad loans, Chaudhuri has done well to mitigate a part of the problem.

"He made the balance sheet stronger by making adequate provisioning for pension and bad loans," says SS Ranjan, who served Bhatt as chief financial officer of SBI. "He also improved capital efficiency without raising capital (69 basis points) tax efficiency. He brought a lot of improvement in the operational area and decentralised power." SBI's effective tax rate fell to 30%, from 42% earlier.

Making SBI efficient to the levels of a private sector bank is a Himalayan task, but there are areas where there could be improvements.

"At the business-per-employee level, yes we did not optimally utilise our manpower," says Chaudhuri. "We are downstreaming most of our routine activities.

And, I think, some of our facilities are bloated, like head offices and administrative offices." SBI with 2.28 lakh employees will remain unwieldy for anyone to achieve levels on par with nimbler private rivals. But the way has been shown by Chaudhuri.

Many institutions after decades of glory stare at an abyss because of their reluctance to change or adapt to new reality. But Chaudhuri with a few small, but vital initiatives has set the ball rolling.