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As long as there is cash, and the economy is running, all is well. But as a bank, we'll have to test, experiment, try a hundred different things. A few may work, a few may fail, but we have to experiment and try.
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Historically, in India, the strange fact was that the equity owner was not taking as much hit as the lender. Therefore, if we restore the first principle of economics, that first the equity owner needs to take the hit and then the lender, we will get a good solution.
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Growth should take care of the fear of job losses. People will be challenged to do different things. For people who are not up to it, purely based on objective assessment, that's a different issue, which, you do it anyway.
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I grew up in a joint family of 60 people with one kitchen. So I am a firm believer in the family concept.
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I would have loved to have been a cricketer.
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I am big believer that increase the size of the cake is as at least as important as distribution of the cake. To increase the size of the cake, you need to focus on progress.
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It's true that I have always been very comfortable with numbers.
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Our entire approach to the banking and financial services business is risk-adjusted returns. We believe that in most parts of the world, and including pockets in India, banking tends to mis-price risk.
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In a marathon, if you run too fast, you get exhausted. If you run too slow, you never make it.
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If you look at the history of large financial institutions, most of them have succeeded because of a deep presence in their home market.
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There is socialism in the family that conflicts with meritocracy. And that bothered me.
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My view is that, as management, the focus has to be on having a strategy and executing it. As you do the strategy and execution, it is important to communicate it consistently.
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If you ask me, over time, I am a believer in the Indian financial saving story getting stronger; a lot more savers are moving money away from gold and real estate into banks, mutual funds, insurance and equities.
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Technology is an enabler; you have to be at the cutting edge of technology - there is no choice.
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The trouble with opportunity is, it never announces when it comes. It's only after it's gone, you'd realize that you missed it.
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We are extremely focused on building some of the assets which are going into mid-India, semi-urban and rural, and that's our DNA. We are building a retail bank, and a lot of the deposit base is still in urban India.
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Kotak Mahindra Bank has very significant presence in the West and the North, and our total branch network between these two regions is 80 per cent, and in case of ING Vysya Bank, their network in South is 64 per cent of their total branch network.
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I do believe that banks are special - they are very leveraged institutions by nature; therefore, it's even more critical to ensure that the governance and the process of running a banking company are well-organised, managed and regulated.
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A lot of our fiscal deficit went to fund consumption and really did not get used to build investment and infrastructure. The trouble is, you can get a spurt in GDP growth, which may not be sustainable. I would much rather build the gradient of a long-term marathon.
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When a lion doesn't get its prey, it remains hungry. When the prey saves himself, he has not won, but has saved his life.
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A lot of family members worked in the joint commodities family business. It was a classic case of capitalism at work and socialism at home.
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What we have to be careful is that if we drop interest rates where the rate of interest is lower than inflation, then savers will not put money in financial savings and move it to gold and real estate, which is bad for India.
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I am a believer in the journey and enjoying the journey.
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My view is make Indian manufacturing competitive, and if it is competitive, it can serve customers or consumers anywhere.