Finance Continuum 2012

The Finance Continuum, 2012, the second leg of the rolling seminar series – Continuum at Sailesh J. Mehta School of Management, flagged off on an exultant note. Themed “Financial Innovation for Sustained Growth”, the event was held on 28^th July, 2012. An introductory address by our student representative, Mr Rajat Sharma, set the stage for our distinguished speakers from the Industry to discuss burning issues and challenges of the managerial world.

Embarking on the theme, our honorary Professor, Mr S. V.D.N Rao, shared his words of wisdom. He talked about how critics across the world blamed innovation in the US and globally for the 2009 economic crisis. He also spoke about the role of regulatory bodies in India in mitigating the impact of global economic turmoil in India.His speech was followed by a talk by Dr. Prabhakar Patil, Joint Director, SEBI, who briefed the aspiring young minds on the ‘Market Micro Structure of Equity Derivatives in India’. He stressed the need for improving market breadth and the fact that hard mentality was a great threat to stock markets.

Our next dignitary for the day, Mr. G. Chokalingam, Executive Director of Centrum Capital, touched upon various Macro Economic issues through some very interesting facts. He proposed investment in rural, education, research and exploration infrastructure. He stressed the need for ‘unbalanced’ growth. ‘Go investing and growing’ was the success mantra he suggested for emerging economies like India.

Our third speaker for the day was Mr. Anup Bagchi, MD & CEO, ICICI Securities. He began with the thought that innovation was synonymous with ’drug discovery’ and that it had its pros and cons. He proclaimed that technical Infrastructure and social architecture were the most crucial driving factors of innovation. He also gave us an insight into risk management and risk products and proposed hedging the risk of commodity prices and many other innovative solutions to pressing economic concerns.

Panel discussion on the topic ‘Innovation - a double edged sword’ had the audience engaged as three eminent speakers- Mr Rajesh Mokashi, Deputy Managing Director ,CARE Ratings,  Dr Ramachandran, Head, Global  Research ,ICICI Bank and Mr Jacob Mathew, MD, MAPE Advisory, coordinated by Professor Rao dissected their observations and experiences for an enriching discussion. The discussion brought out insights like ‘Innovation is a way of life’ and that the ramifications of financial innovation affected the economy as a whole.

Our fourth speaker for the day, Mr. Manishi Raychaudhuri, Managing Director, BNP Paribas, talked about Indian equity markets and why it was at a crossroad. He pointed out how the unpredictability of global markets and policy paralysis had almost stalled growth. However, he also brought out the positive signs like declining commodity prices and gold imports. He, like Mr. Chokalingam, believed a lack of Infrastructure was the biggest bottleneck for our economy. Our fifth speaker, Mr. Harsh Nanda, Executive Director, Goldman Sachs, gave us an overview of private equity and its scope in India. He believed India was a relatively difficult market to penetrate. He briefed us on various challenges he faced during the establishment and expansion of Goldman Sachs Private Equity extension in India.

Our final speaker for the day, Mr Vivek Joshi, Associate Director, Kotak Investment Advisory, talked about private equity firms from an Indian firm’s perspective. He discussed the various types of equity, setting up of private equity, management of investors’ capital and exit options for investors. He also talked about the various roles in PE and the skills required for excelling in the PE domain.

The continuum ended with a vote of thanks by the student co-ordinator for the finance continuum 2012- Archish Gupta. Finance continuum 2012, was a great learning experience for all the students of Sailesh J. Mehta school of Management. The perfect blend of industry and academia made it a huge success and was appreciated heartily by both the spheres.

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Archana Choudhary

Class of 2014

SJMSOM, IIT Bombay