The 9th edition of the prestigious The India Finance Forum 2018 was organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on 14th December 2018 in Chennai. This year the focus was on ‘Driving performance, the business value in a digital world.’ Amidst eminent business leaders and noted academicians, Dr. Anantha Nageswaran, the newly appointed Dean of IFMR Graduate School of Business (KREA University) gave a special address during the inaugural session of the event. The theme for the morning session was on ‘Creating a Robust Financial Architecture.’
The financial landscape across India and the world is undergoing a drastic metamorphosis with the advent of digital technology, alternative lending models and fintech companies. In his special address, Dr. Nageswaran talked about the importance of having a robust financial system and implementing effective financial regulations in the current digital revolution to create a strong economic base.
He said, “A robust financial architecture cannot be accomplished without a robust financial regulation.” He also suggested that a rational economic behavior at all layers of the financial system is the key to ensuring transparency and independence to regulators to mediate during the market crisis.
Dr. Nageswaran praised the current government’s initiatives to restore the macroeconomic stability but also highlighted the importance of RBI to maintain economic equilibrium. He said, “The new RBI Governor has to maintain status quo in 2019 amid talk about the government resorting to populist measures in the run-up to the general elections.” He further added, “There is a case for distributing it back to the shareholder, which is the government, but it should be transferred to a specific mean, instead of transferring to the Consolidated Fund of India,” with regards to the RBI’s capital exceeding the recommended numbers from the Usha Thorat panel which talks about financial inclusion.
Dr. Nageswaran said that we should also think about whether it is right to adopt an inflation-targeting regime for a developing economy like India and added, “There is nothing sacrosanct about 4 percent.”
Dr. Anantha Nageswaran was recently awarded the coveted Dr. B R Shenoy Award in the field of Economics at the 5th India Ideas Conclave held on Oct 26, 2018, at New Delhi. He is an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and has a doctoral degree in Finance from the University of Massachusetts. In the past, he has worked for Union Bank of Switzerland (now UBS) and Credit Suisse in Switzerland and Singapore.
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