Samanvay kicked off on 27 October 2007 with Mr Sanjay Nayar, CEO Citi India addressing the students on the current banking and economic scenario of India. He underscored the importance of a good regulator like the RBI and why it is important to have strong but consolidated national banks. He recommended that any mature economy should have 20 established and powerful banks. Mr Nayar was of the opinion that the credit and mortgage markets in India have a long way to go. Looking at the future, he commented that India should move away from its cost advantage stance to a better quality one. “There is a big population paradox in India. In fields like IT and ITES there is dearth of quality professionals whereas many people are struggling to make meet ends in other locations. The seeds of discontent and rebellion are sown here and this is something we need to overcome.” Mr. Nayar opined. He also advocated education as the only remedy for our problems and path to success.
Mr R Ravimohan, Managing Director, Standard and Poor, South Asia made a presentation on ‘How Global are Indian markets’. He talked about the Global linkages for trade and investments, and advantages of strong domestic participants and a high degree of liquidity. However some of the risks in this market would include event based volatility and a risk of contagion. Domestic players are generally unprepared for such eventualities. The session ended with Mr Ravimohan urging students to adopt a sound investment philosophy. He talked about the importance of diversification across different asset classes and different markets.
Dr J J Irani, Director Tata Sons, started his address by talking about India’s share in world trade which was 20 pc in early 1800’s , declined to 2 pc by the time of independence and was down to less than 0.5 pc before liberalization. After liberalization, Indian companies have spread their wings, ventured in overseas markets and cornered a significant share of global trade. Being a strong advocate of scientific research and being a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet, Dr Irani highlighted the importance of industrial and technological research. There has to be an onus on industry to inspire young professionals to take up research, this could be done by offering attractive compensation and opportunities. He also highlighted primary education as a key focus area.
On a different vein, Dr Irani also spoke about the Indo-US Nuclear Deal as being the best thing that could have happened to India. The event ended with an elaborate round of Q and A round with Dr Irani.