Doha Bank expects its plan to foray into India is likely to materialise soon. The Qatar-based lender has been waiting for six years seeking approval from the Reserve Bank of India. In an interview with Malvika Joshi, Chief Executive Officer R Seetharaman says it is a good time to enter India, which is grossly under-banked.

Q&A: R Seetharaman, CEO, Doha Bank

Business Standard

The Reserve Bank of India&rsquo;s (RBI) quest for financial inclusion through new banking licences has caught the imagination of social entrepreneur Vijay Mahajan. A day after RBI released the draft guidelines on new bank licences, Mahajan said the BASIX Group, a financial services conglomerate promoted by him, would apply for one.

Q&A: Vijay Mahajan, Chairman, BASIX

At a time when most banks in India are cautious in lending to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), fearing deterioration in credit quality, Kerala-based Federal Bank is looking to offer more loans to these firms. In an interview with Somasroy Chakraborty, Managing Director and Chief Executive Shyam Srinivasan shares the bank&rsquo;s future plans.

Q&A: Shyam Srinivasan, MD & CEO, Federal Bank

Our priority will be to continue the growth momentum in core earnings, along with the overall business, in this calendar year.

Q&A: S Raman, CMD, Canara Bank

For this risk-taker from Kolkata, commercial viability is equally important if infrastructure projects are to be completed.

Lunch with BS: Hemant Kanoria

The recent recommendations of the Malegam Committee have drawn attention from all quarters. Treating criticism and praise alike, the committee&rsquo;s chairman, Yezdi H Malegam, 77, a Board member of the Reserve Bank of India, said micro-finance institutions (MFIs) are an instrument to help mainly women work their way out of poverty and he raised some hard questions on how many of these institutions actually delivered for the cause.

Q&A: Y H Malegam, Chairman, Malegam Committee

It is a move that has taken the private equity industry by surprise. Four managing directors at Sequoia quit in tandem to start Westbridge Capital Fund, a public markets fund, in India. Sumir Chadha, one of the four who stepped out of Sequoia, spoke to Raghuvir Badrinath on the future plans and regrouping under WestBridge Public Fund.

Q&A: Sumir Chadha, Co-founder, Westbridge Capital Fund

It&rsquo;s business as usual for LIC Housing Finance. From being in the news for all the wrong reasons, the mortgage lender is slowly getting its act together, courtesy its new CEO V K Sharma. Ever since taking charge, Sharma has been busy traveling across the country. In his own words, it has been a challenging as well as a satisfactory journey. Challenging, because he had to reinstate the image of a scam-tainted company not only for its investors, but also its employees.

Q&A: V K Sharma, CEO, LIC Housing Finance

By her own admission, Kaku Nakhate is not the &ldquo;networking type&rdquo; and rarely goes out for lunches or dinners. Instead, she prefers to have a quick roti-sabzi in her corner office at the Bank of America (BankAm) headquarters in Mumbai&rsquo;s Nariman Point, write Shyamal Majumdar and Somasroy Chakraborty.

Lunch with BS: Kaku Nakhate

Hongkong &amp; Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) is still awaiting the regulator&rsquo;s nod for its proposed acquisition of Royal Bank of Scotland&rsquo;s retail and commercial banking businesses in India. In an interview with Somasroy Chakraborty, Naina Lal Kidwai, country head (India) HSBC, says the unprecedented nature of the deal is delaying the approval of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Q&A: Naina Lal Kidwai, HSBC

Infrastructure debt funds are expected to attract huge investor interest in overseas markets, given a marked improvement in economic sentiments here and a low-interest rate environment abroad, ICICI Bank chief Chanda Kochhar has said.

Overseas investors bullish on infra debt funds: Chanda Kochhar

Press Trust of India

Interview with chief executive officer, Bajaj Allianz

We will soon move to a gender-based pricing for health insurance: Tapan Singhel

Ajay Relan, a heavyweight of the Indian private equity (PE) industry, headed Citigroupâ€™s India PE business since its inception in 1995. He quit Citi Venture Capital International (CVCI) in 2008 and floated CX Partners. Within a year, he raised more than $500 million in bad market conditions. He speaks to Reghu Balakrishnan on how the Indian PE sector can bring back its lost sheen.

Deal sizes will get larger over time: Ajay Relan

NewQuest Capital Partners is Asiaâ€™s first private equity (PE) fund with a focus on secondary transactions. The fund, which buys portfolios from existing investors, has so far secured four deals in India. In the current situation, where PE exits through initial public offerings and strategic sales seem difficult, NewQuest plans to later reap a windfall by signing more secondary deals.

More profitable exit opportunities should open for PE funding: Amit Gupta

Multiples Alternate Asset Management, founded by Renuka Ramnath in 2009, handles a $450-million sector-agnostic fund. Prior to launching it, Ramnath, who has spent nearly two-and-a-half decades in the Indian financial sector, had played a key role in making ICICI Venture the largest Indian private equity (PE) firm during her stint as CEO for eight years.

There could be consolidation of teams, rather than of funds: Renuka Ramnath

Sandeep Singhal, co-founder Nexus Venture Partners, is among the handful of venture capitalists (VC) who spotted the India opportunity quite early. Before co-founding Nexus in 2006, he had co-founded eVentures in 1999. Nexusâ€™ strategy has been to invest in entrepreneurs, than just a business plan and taking early bet on technology evolution. Since 2010, it has exited from six companies.

Leadership position perception drove e-commerce valuation: Sandeep Singhal

Housing Development Finance Corporation, the country&rsquo;s largest mortgage lender, does not foresee any slowdown in the demand for home loan because of rising interest rates. In an interview with Somasroy Chakraborty and Niladri Bhattacharya, Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Keki Mistry shares HDFC&rsquo;s plan to expand its balance sheet in a rising rate environment.

Q&A: Keki Mistry, HDFC

Given the recent weakness in the rupee and the high forward premium, information technology companies can prove to be good defensive stocks with low downside risks in the prevailing market conditions, Moses Harding, head (global markets group), IndusInd Bank, tells Puneet Wadhwa.

Market Voice: Moses Harding, IndusInd Bank

Prakash Bakshi took over as the chairman of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) when the bank was in the midst of its restructuring exercise. In an interview with Sanjay Jog, the Nabard chief talks about the challenges and the opportunities for the bank in the future.

Q&A: Prakash Bakshi, Chairman, Nabard

From private equity to insurance, asset management to equity broking, the Aditya Birla Group is present in almost all segments of the financial services sector. In an interview with Niladri Bhattacharya and Somasroy Chakraborty, Chief Executive (financial services), Ajay Srinivasan, says the company plans to set up a financial holding company once the guidelines are finalised.

Q&A: Ajay Srinivasan, Aditya Birla Group

For Western Union, the world's largest money transfer company, focusing on under-banked populations is a core part of its strategy and India, the world's largest market for inbound remittances, could emerge as an important market for its value-added services, Stewart Stockdale tells Kanika Datta on his first visit to the country.

Page 32 - Interviews