Mrs. Usha Thorat - Chairperson, FBIL

Former Deputy Governor Reserve Bank of India

After a career of nearly four decades with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Usha Thorat became its Deputy Governor in 2005, a post which she held for five years. Her specific responsibilities as Deputy Governor included banking regulation and supervision of commercial banks, regional rural banks and cooperative banks. She was also responsible for the developmental role of the RBI for facilitating financial inclusion. She represented RBI on the Basel committee on Banking Supervision, the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). She chaired the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation from 2005 to 2009.

During her career in RBI, for nearly a decade, from the liberalization in 1992 till 2003, she was closely involved with foreign exchange markets and reserve management, public debt management and development of the government securities markets, money and debt markets at a time when these markets were in their early stages of development.

After stepping down from RBI, Usha Thorat was entrusted by the Reserve Bank of India to set up the Centre for Advanced Financial Research and learning in banking and finance. She held charge as Director of CAFRAL from 2011 to 2014. Under her leadership, CAFRAL established its identity as a unique platform for debate and discussion amongst industry, regulators, and academics on policy and strategic issues, locally as well as globally.

In 2011, she chaired the Working Group (WG) constituted by RBI, to review the existing regulatory and supervisory framework of non-banking finance companies (NBFCs). In 2013-14, she was a member of the High level panel constituted by RBI to scrutinize new bank licenses. In 2014, the Government of India, Ministry of Rural Development asked her to chair an Expert group on setting up a developmental financial institution for women self-help groups. She has recently (in February 2015) been appointed by the Reserve Bank of India to chair an External Advisory Committee to screen applications for new small finance banks.

Mrs. Thorat is currently active with a number of non-Governmental organisations. She is on the National Managing Committee of the Indian Cancer Society, an organisation for advocacy, support and research in cancer and is Chairperson of the Governing Advisory Council of the Cancer Cure Fund. She is a trustee of the impact India Foundation which operates the Lifeline Express and is engaged in community health. She is a Vice President member of the Governing Council of the BNHS and is also on the Board of Governors of the Foundation for Ecological Security which works on issues of sustainability and equitable development.

Mr. D.V.S.S.V. Prasad - Director, FBIL

Mr. Prasad is the Chief Executive Officer at FIMMDA since April 2014.

Earlier, He was the Managing Director of PNB Gilts Ltd, a subsidiary of PNB for two years. PNB Gilts is a Primary Dealer and is the only listed such Company in India.

Prior to the above, Mr. Prasad was in charge of International Division at Punjab National Bank for four years. During this period, actively involved in setting up of a subsidiary in UK, branches in DIFC Dubai and Hong Kong, a new Joint Venture Bank in Bhutan, a representative Office in Oslo, Norway as well as acquisition of a Bank from Kazakhstan .Prior to the special assignment, he was in charge of the International Division for Domestic Business.

Earlier, Mr. Prasad was the Executive Director of Everest Bank Ltd , Nepal during 2004-2006 and won the “Best Bank of the Year 2006 “ for Nepal from The Banker, London.

Mr. Prasad was associated with Domestic and Forex treasuries in various capacities and has forex treasury exposure for almost 20 years.

He is a post graduate in Chemistry and a certified associate (I) of the Indian institute of Bankers.

Mr. C.E.S. AZARIAH - Director, FBIL

Mr. C.E.S. Azariah was CEO, FIMMDA (from 2005 till March 2014). Mr. Azariah has started his career in State bank of India in 1972 as a Probationary Officer. During his 33 years’ service in State Bank of India, he has worked in various Departments of the Bank, but major portion of his service were in the area of Forex, Fixed Income, and Derivative markets in India and Bahrain. His expertise lies in the area of Forex, Fixed Income Money Market, Bond & Derivatives markets, starting as a Dealer and climbing to Chief Dealer, General Manager -Integrated Treasury and Chief General Manager, Integrated Treasury operations of SBI. Mr. Azariah was also a member of the R.H. Patil Committee on Corporate Bonds & Securitization.

Mr. Azariah is also the Independent Director of Sify Technologies Ltd., UTI Trustee Co. Pvt. Ltd., Clear Corp Dealing System (India) Ltd.

Mr. Azariah is M.Sc., and CAIIB

Mr. Himadri Bhattacharya

Mr. Himadri Bhattacharya is a finance and risk management professional for over 30 years. His professional career began in July 1976, when he joined Reserve Bank of India. He left Reserve Bank of India in early 2007 to join the TATA group (the largest business conglomerate in India) where he worked for about five years.

Mr. Bhattacharya possess vide experience in the following:

• All aspects relating to portfolio management of external reserves, including sovereign wealth funds.
• Operations in the international markets for fixed income securities and foreign exchange products.
• Regulatory policy-making with regard to foreign exchange market, government securities market and market for gold
• Financial risk management, including enterprise-wide risk management
• Financial sector regulation and financial stability..

He has also provided consultancy on external reserves management and risk management to central banks as well as faculty support for seminars and workshops on portfolio management and risk management organized by Macroeconomic and Financial Management Institute of East Africa (MEFMI).

For about a decade following the commencement of structural reforms in India in 1990-91, he participated in a good number of the major policy-making in India with regard to the external sector and the domestic financial markets.

He has been working as a volunteer for the CFA Institute’s Activities in India for many years now.

Mr. Himadri Bhattacharya is currently associated as a consultant to the World Gold council on a project in India.

Academic Qualifications:

Degree/Diploma	University/Institute	Year of Award
Master of Science (Physics)	IIT, Kharagpur	1973
Advanced Studies Program (International Economic Policy Research)	Institute for World Economics, Kiel, Germany	1991

Qualification	Institute/Professional Body
Certified Associateship Diploma in programming (COBOL)	Indian Institute of Bankers, Mumbai, India Regional Computer Centre, Chandigarh, India
Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)	CFA Institute, USA
Financial Risk Manager (FRM) Certification	Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP), USA

Dr. Golak Nath – Sr. Vice President, CCIL

Dr.Golaka C. Nath is Senior Vice President – Eco. Research & Surveillance, Membership Management and Human Resources Development Department of Clearing Corporation of India. The areas of operation includes: Banking, Equity, Bonds and Forex.

Dr.Golaka Nath earlier worked with National Stock Exchange of India and Vijaya Bank. He has in all 22 years of experience in Banking and Financial Markets.

Dr.Golaka Nath is holding Ph. D, M.A. (Econ), MBA (Fin), CAIIB.

Mr. Rajesh Agarwal – M.D, Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Mr. Rajesh Agrawal is the Managing Director and Head of Treasury, Global Market Group, Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Mr. Agrawal has about 21 years of experience in financial markets trading foreign exchange and fixed income. He was associated in the past with ICICI group for about 8 years and DSP Merrill Lynch/Bank of America for about one year.

Mr. Rajesh Agrawal is MBA from IIM Bangalore, 1995 Batch

Mr. Vipul Chandra - Head Treasury, Larsen & Toubro Ltd

Mr. Vipul Chandra is the head of Treasury for Larsen and Toubro Limited (L&T Ltd.). L&T Ltd. Is the largest EPC company in India. His responsibilities include financial risk management, short term and long term fund raising, banking arrangements, capital structuring and allocation for the L&T group companies.

Prior to this, Vipul was the head of Corporate Sales & Structuring at Citibank responsible for the foreign exchange and derivatives sales business of the bank in Indian sub-continent.

Vipul completed his Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering before going in for an MBA from IIM Calcutta.

Shri K BABUJI - GENERAL MANAGER, RBI, DEIO, C.O. MUMBAI

Shri Babuji K is a mathematics graduate and a certified associate of Indian institute of bankers. He holds a MBA degree from ICFAI institute specializing in finance. He joined as direct recruit officer in RBI in 1989 and has held various positions in the areas of currency management, supervision and regulation and had also held teaching positions as a faculty member in Reserve Bank Staff College. He had served in the Board of Lakshmi Vilas Bank as RBI nominee director for a year or so. He was also especially involved in the processing of new bank licenses and was a part of the team that scrutinized new bank licenses applications. The majority of his career has been spent in the treasury of RBI having worked as portfolio manager and chief dealer. He was also involved in the exchange rate management of the rupee and was a part of the team that evolved policies in the area of exchange rate management. Currently he is a chief dealer in the Department of External Investments and operations and oversees which engages in the management of foreign exchange reserves.

Mr. Ravindranath Gandrakota - GM (Rupee Markets), SBI

A post-graduate in Geology, Mr. Ravindranath has over 32 years’ experience with SBI, India’s largest Bank, covering different aspects of banking and currently oversees the Domestic Bond treasury portfolio with significant exposure in various market segments including money markets, equities and investments. He has worked in various positions both in India and abroad, including postings in US, Chennai and Hyderabad, in both retail and wholesale operations.