Businessman

As we were all growing up, there used to be a very big mantra in India which was called 'export or perish.' There was a long period when we used to focus on import substitution.

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.

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.

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.

There's no harm being a copycat. If someone else is doing a good job, copy. It's free.

It's true that I have always been very comfortable with numbers.

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.

If you look at 2009, why did the recovery happen? Recovery happened because somebody in the world's largest economy opened the tap: the U.S., followed by Europe and now Japan.

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.

When I wear the hat of management, it is important that our management behaves and conducts as management accountable to the board.

My view is make Indian manufacturing competitive, and if it is competitive, it can serve customers or consumers anywhere.

I keep wondering at night, 'Will I have a bank the next morning, or will some technology company be doing banking without needing a bank?'

I was not very keen on joining the family business... there were 14 family members working together, and it worried me that I would not have enough individuality.

There is socialism in the family that conflicts with meritocracy. And that bothered me.

A weaker currency is a national tariff. After we get a weaker currency, we have to take advantage of that. Or else, we will waste it once more in inflation and in the inability to raise competitiveness.

Foreign investors are looking for a consistent and stable policy in India.

Culture is about the mindset of people, and we are very happy to have a strong combined mindset of people.

Technology is an enabler; you have to be at the cutting edge of technology - there is no choice.

I would have loved to have been a cricketer.

Younger customers are the future, but older customers have the money. So you need both: one for the present, and the other for the future.