I am an engineer, a student of IIT Kanpur, where I did my B.Tech in Electrical Engineering. After that, I was working for a couple of years then I went on to do my MBA from IIM Bangalore. Once I graduated, I joined a program called Tata Administrative services (TAS), which is a group level management program in the Tata Group. I joined TAS in 1996 and have been there till now (2016). It has been exactly two decades and in the Tata group I have primarily been on two broad sectors, financial services and the automotive services. Within the financial services I have been involved in setting up number of companies. I was involved in setting up a broking company called Tata TD Water House Securities, I was involved in setting up Tata capital, Tata Securities, Tata Cleantech Capital so these are all subsidiaries within the financial services. I was the CEO of Tata Securities and Tata Cleantech Capital till 2015. Tata Cleantech is a set of primarily five companies and we are in the financial services phase, we are in non-banking financial services company, we are a lending organisation, we have a housing finance organisation, project finance organisation, investment banking and securities organisation and we have two other small subsidiaries which are into travel and forex. We are around 7000 people strong. Then, I moved in as the CHRO of Tata Capital. As I said, I have been a business leader and now I am an HR leader and I think over the last 20 years I have exposure to probably all areas of business especially in the financial services sector.
Very enriching. In fact I am a fulbright from the Carnegie Mellon institute in 2006. Fulbright is not like a MBA or a under graduate program, it is more developmental in nature, where you explore certain areas which are important to society or business at large. And once you get into program you continue to be sort of associated with it for as long as you would wish to be.
Some people are born to lead. Avijit Bhattacharya, CEO of Tata Cleantech Capital Ltd has everything it takes to lead at the financial services arm of India’s largest conglomerate, the $103 Billion Tata group. Stellar credentials, grit, and a unwavering focus were more than apparent as Corporate Citizen sat down with Avijit to discuss his inspiring journey, views on corporate India and what it takes to chart your own path in the corporate world
Honestly speaking, at the top level of education in India, we are probably almost at par with the world. Where the difference comes in, is in the opportunity to immerse in the industry. In the US, you have more opportunity to interact with the business or the place where you will apply the knowledge rather than having just theoretical knowledge, so this is the gap I think the Indian institutes are trying to bridge but, I think it will evolve over a period of time; where they exchange people from industry and educational institutes start to happen, so the people who have worked in the industry come to teach as faculty, faculty go over as professionals for a short stint and come back. There is a lot of congruence in what the industry requires and what has been taught in the institute.
“Financial services are available to a larger number of people than were probably available 20 years ago. As a society we are more open to not taking loans and buying or creating assets, so therefore the entire loan deployment in the economy has gone up”
There has been significant evolution thanks to the new private banks and other non-banking finance companies. Financial services are available to a larger number of people than were probably available 20 years ago. As a society we are more open to not taking loans and buying or creating assets, so therefore the entire loan deployment in the economy has gone up. We still are debt ---but our future generations or the new generations won’t be and technology has played a great role in that. In India, most financial services have actually gone cutting edge by scaling technology. Public sector banks had a legacy and they also have transformed themselves but their transformation is a lot more difficult because they still cling to the past. Comparatively, the private sector banks did not have the legacy so they were able to actually leapfrog in terms of technology to deliver financial services that much faster. What we require as an overall system is a central repository of credit information which a developed country has. We don’t have credit or income information, it is getting created, but again it is the beginning and it will take some time to mature. As we speak there is fair amount of data but it is much smaller compared to the 1.2 billion people that we are, therefore that economic information about the people is something that needs to get created. The government is already working on it, and aadhar is a good pillar to lean on. I am sure we are on the right track but it will take some time before that information becomes liberally available and when it is available then there will be huge growth in financial services.
In my personal opinion, somewhere the valuations maybe a little too inflated but they are not totally wrong. The reason being is that, these companies have been able to bring in business models which engage customers and suppliers in a different way on a technology base which gives a lot of agility and flexibility and they are going to stay. Consequently it is the old companies or the old business models which need to change to this.
Indeed they have to. Banking is based on trust and has to be stable but stability is about the security of the money that people have entrusted them, and that does not stop make them from being agile; so agility and stability is where the trick is; typically speaking it is difficult. When you are not very agile, then you have a semblance of stability. When you are trying to be agile you are running on a zig zag path and that’s a tightrope to walk. Agility with stability is the key.
If you consider the overall population you could safely assume that 50 percent are women. Given that representation in society the representation of the workplace is far lesser but, things are changing rapidly because of education which is now available to women, primarily urban women. Rural women are still kind of struggling to get the equality in education. However, companies are now actively trying to increase women in their workforce.
They should be open to take on to the world, and not have any fixed ideas. They should feel free to take challenges, they should not be too scared of failing and they should be flexible in their own ideas of about what they want to be. The more flexible they are they more successful they will be.
By Neeraj Varty
