On Saturday evening, corporate India will check the pulse of economic recovery. Using the backdrop of surprisingly robust quarterly corporate results, industry leaders, bankers and top government officials will lend their opinion to the direction they expect interest rates to move in RBI?s annual credit policy on Tuesday. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will kick off the deliberations at FE?s India?s Best Banks Awards ceremony in Mumbai.
Speaking on the issues, SBI chairman OP Bhatt said the economy has the potential to grow even at 8% this fiscal. ?A lot, of course, will depend on how global conditions play out. Industrial credit has begun to improve and that is a big positive.? RBI?s latest weekly supplement up to July 3 shows non-food credit has risen by 16.37%, about a 100-basis point improvement over the previous week.
ICICI Bank chairman KV Kamath was clear that to sustain a GDP growth rate of anywhere near 10% in the medium term, ?Banking sector growth has to be more than twice or even thrice that.? Between 1997?when the FE Best Banks Survey began?and now, credit made available by the domestic banking sector has expanded to Rs 27,41,073 crore from just Rs 1,38,548 crore.
The issues will be debated by a distinguished panel that brings together some of the best brains of the banking & financial services sector: ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar, SBI?s Bhatt, HSBC India country head Naina Lal Kidwai, UBS Securities chairperson Manisha Girotra, Bank of America CEO Vishwavir Ahuja, IIFCL chairman SS Kohli and DSP BlackRock president & CIO S Naganath. The topic of deliberation is, aptly, ?Lessons from the turmoil: new challenges in profitability and growth?.
They will explain the learning curve that the Indian banking industry traversed after the collapse of global banking in 2008 and its gradual re-emergence?demonstrating the vulnerability of interrelated international markets. That learning is will be exchanged between the audience and the panel to develop the right strategies to find new growth opportunities.
Preceding the panel will be the presentation of the awards to the chairpersons of the 13 banks?from both the private and public sector?who made the best of the opportunities that the tumultuous 2007-08 provided. The ranking is based on extensive number crunching of RBI data by Ernst &Young. Going beyond the numbers, India?s premier banking awards will also recognise for the first time the role of key individuals: faces that have redefined change and success in the sector. These will be awards for lifetime achievement, best banker and best innovator.
Also in attendance will be key decision-makers for Maharashtra, with chief minister Ashok Chavan, deputy Chaggan Bhujbal and several members of the state cabinet.