The Chief Guest for the Summit was Mr. Vinod Rai, Chairman, Banks Board Bureau, Government of India. He highlighted that the banks stressed assets are due to high leveraging by the borrowing companies. He also highlighted that the Banks Board Bureau is analysing these stress assets and will put forward an intermediary mechanism to settle them. RBI is also preparing guidelines on the issues faced in case of joint lending by banks. Mr. Rai was hopeful that all these will facilitate in cleaning the balance sheet of the banks. In this regard, a roadmap will be ready by 15th June so that a certain degree of comfort can be provided in the decision making process. Then there were four Panel Discussions with Panel Discussion I on ‘Linking the Unbanked Population to the Formal Banking System’.

The speakers for the panel were Mr. Rakesh Sethi, Executive Director, Union Bank of India; Ms. Ratna Vishwanathan, Chief Executive Officer, Microfinance Institutions Network; and Mr. Anuj Pandey, EVP & Regional Business Head-North, Religare Finvest Ltd. The session chair was Dr. Harsh Kumar Bhanwala, Chairman, NABARD. The Panel Discussion II was on ‘Enhanced Role of Technology & Applications in Banking and Financial Sector’. The panelists were Mr. Kiran Karnik, Former President, NASSCOM; Mr. Murli Mahalingam, Industry Director-Banking, SAP India Subcontinent; and Mr. Trilok Chandra, Director, Department of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India; and Mr. Rajesh Dhuddu, Senior VP-Market Development, Quatrro Processing Service. The session moderator was Mr. Ravi Nawal, Country Head, Kapronasia in India. The Panel Discussion III was on ‘Financing the Infrastructure Gap: Role of Banks, Financial Institutions & Specialist Institutions’. The panelists were Mr. S.B. Nayar, Chairman and Managing Director, India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd.; Mr. K. Mukundan, CEO UTI Capital Ltd.; and Mr. Sidharath Kapur, President and CFO-Airports, GMR Group. The Moderator for the panel was Mr. Tamal Bandyopadhyay, Consulting Editor, The Mint. The last Panel Discussion IV was on ‘Structural Reforms in the Indian Financial Sector’. The expert speakers for the session were Mr. Deepak Chatterjee, Managing Director & CEO, IIFCL Projects Ltd.; Mr. Nikhil Sahni, Secior President and Country Head, Government Banking & Strategic Government Advisory, YES Bank; Mr. A.K. Choudhary, Chief General Manager, Department of Banking Regulation, Reserve Bank of India; Mr. Naresh Makhijani, Partner and Head-Financial Services, KPMG India; and Mr. Krishnan Sitaraman, Senior Director, CRISIL Ratings.

The session was chaired by Mr. Rajesh Srivastava, Chairman & Managing Director, Rabo Equity Advisors Pvt. Ltd. The speakers deliberated on the various aspects of financial institutions and how their functioning can be made more effective at a fair cost with benefits to all sectors of the society. The speakers also stressed upon the need for a greater role of Micro Finance Institutions and NBFCs as they work at the grassroot level so that they compliment the formal banking channels in reaching out to the bottom of the pyramid. There was also a release of the CII - CRISIL Paper on ‘Building India through a Stronger Financial System’ was released during the Summit. The faculty members found the Summit very informative and insightful.