School of Business (SOB) organized a one day symposium on “Cutting Edge Developments & Career Opportunities in Financial Markets” on 16th November. Both the undergraduates and postgraduates students participated in it. The objective of the symposium was to recognize the evolving trends and employment opportunities in various areas of the financial services sector and to make students aware of the competencies they need to encash on those opportunities. The topics discussed included securities market, economic research, retail banking, insurance, risk management, corporate restructuring, private equity and related areas.
Suraj Malik, Partner, Transaction Tax, Tax and Regulatory Services at BDO India delivered the keynote address. He enlightened the students about the emerging career opportunities in Indian Financial markets. He threw light on Financial sector as the backbone of the business industry and discussed various topics such as project and debt financing, wealth management, investment advisory, consultancy, corporate restructuring, private equity, data analytics and block chain. He also explained the emerging importance of the world of Fintech, a combination of finance and technology with more technology and less finance. He stated in detail about tax optimization, a major internal driver of M&A or corporate restructuring. It was a highly interactive session with students raising some questions to ensure better understanding.
Dr. Rachana Baid is an Independent consultant, Trainer & Teacher in Financial Markets since 1996. Currently, she is associated with National Institute of Securities Markets as Adjunct Associate Professor and visiting faculty with XLRI Jamshedpur (since 2011), S.P. Jain Global School of Manage-ment, Mumbai, Singapore and Dubai (since 2001). She addressed the students by throwing light upon the Securities Market, a place to meet the needs of ‘haves & have- nots’. She provided quality information on how to invest in IPOs and also emphasized on indulging in a habit of reading the different newspapers in order to shape the ideology of our mind. She concluded by
describing the key impediments in the market such as information asymmetry, adverse selection, morale hazard and the biases such as stereotyping, overconfidence, self-attribution and confirmation which can ruin the investment decision. Finally, she answered the questions raised by the students in order to clear their doubts.
Kunal Kundu, Vice President and India Economist, Societe Generale, shared his thoughts on the “Economic Research”. He started by asking some general questions to the students and then, describing Economics as the real behavior of the entities at the macro level. He also urged the students to look at the things holistically. Thereafter, he emphasized that, for being a rich economic researcher, reading, writing, understanding the dynamic trends, acquiring correct data and wise judgement is very important. He spoke on various kinds of researches and the qualifications required for them. He also explained the concept of EIC where he described the impact of different variables on the Economy, Industry and the Company. Then, he drew the students’ attention towards the various jobs available in the policy research area and appreciated the Noble prize winner, Richard Thaler for his Nudge theory as he is a great
believer of the same. After that, he gave a glimpse of the Behavioural Economics. Finally, a question answer session was kept so that the audience could clear their doubts.
Next speaker was Akash Kumar, Sr. Vice President, AXIS Bank, who enlightened the students about what is actually happening in the Retail Banking industry. He commenced his speech by expounding that, nowadays, banks are endearing the customers in order to maximize their satisfaction by overcoming many challenges like, attracting and retaining the customers, digitization, ever increasing competition and finally, the regulatory frameworks. He then explained the strengths and the functions of the AXIS Bank like, today, the bank has a huge battery of subsidiaries and its mobile app is ranked at the top by the customers. The bank has also evolved many strategies for the internal employees like the introduction of Sales Force Tracker. The customer services for settlement of their requests have also been digitized to a great extent for their ease. Thereafter, he stated that the bank has also started employing Lobby Managers so as to interact with the customers and organize seminars to train and educate the senior citizens on how to use the mobile, its different applications etc. Finally, he made an end by clearing the doubts of the students.
The final speaker was Sonjai Kumar, Risk Management Consultant, Reliance Nippon Life Insurance & Joint Secretary, Risk Management Association of India having experience of over 25 years in Life Insurance Industry with passion for Risk Management, Strategy, Insurance and Financial Risks. He started the session by explaining the differences that exist between banking
and insurance. The focal point of his session remained the opportunities that lie in the Insurance Sector and the necessary skills required for having a career in this field. The various aspects discussed, included the job of an underwriter, broker, surveyor and many more. He presented the Risk Management field as an emerging area with progressing opportunities and he aptly quoted this field as “going to stay.” Finally, his speech was brought to an end with a question answer session.
The Center for Finance, Insurance, Risk, and Economics was officially launched on 16th November, 2019. The vision of this center is to be the pioneer institution for developing and nurturing competent budding female experts in the field of banking, finance, insurance, and capital market industry in India. Its purpose is to provide a platform for inculcating, exploring and sharing knowledge about the dynamics of Financial, Insurance, Risk, and Economic sectors amongst students.