Who's who of the Indian financial market brainstormed and presented their vision on how to bring back India's economy into growth trajectory at the Second Edition of the Financial Market Conclave organized by The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry on 26th September, 2019 in Mumbai. The theme of the conclave was "Indian Financial Markets: At Cross Roads". The conclave commenced with the Welcome Address of Mr B B Chatterjee, the President of The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He set the tune of the conclave by elaborating the need of such a conclave where a platform was created to exchange views and opinions on the current financial market issues of the Country. Shri Rajnish Kumar, Chairman, State Bank of India was the Chief Guest of the conclave and spoke at length on financial market situation of the Country. He commenced his address by touching upon the macro economic scenario across the globe. He stated that global economic activities had slowed down amidst elevated trade tensions and geopolitical uncertainty. He said that the financial markets were driven by monetary policy stances of major central banks which were in part guided by geo-political tensions. Mr. Kumar presented facts and figures and said that, segments of India's capital market were comparable with counterparts in many of the advanced economies in terms of efficiency, tradability resilience and stability. In particular their ability to withstand several periods of stress, notably the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997-98, the Global Financial Crisis in 2007-09 and the 'Taper Tantrum' episode in 2013 was a sign of increasing maturity. He also stated that in terms of size, all the major segments of the capital market, viz., Central Government securities (Gsec) market, market for State Development Loans (SDL), corporate bond market and equity market - the so called 'cash markets' - had experienced consistent growth during the past few decades in terms of primary issuance, market capitalization and trading volumes in the secondary market. He informed that equity market remained the largest segment, even as G-Sec, SDL and corporate bond markets had grown steadily.

During his discussion with Mr. Tamal Bandyopadhyay, Consulting Editor of Business Standard & Chairman Emeritus, Banking and Finance Committee, BCC&I, Mr Kumar said that the Indian economy witnessed major shifts in the pattern and volume of financial transactions across major sectors during the period 2011-12 to 2017-18. The household sector which remained the major supplier of funds, had been undergoing a major behavioural shift with greater financialisation and diversification of household savings - a trend that augurs well for sustaining high growth of the Indian economy. He mentioned that there had been a shift in savings of household's sector from physical to financial assets. Furthermore, a shift away from bank deposits to investment in mutual funds, insurance and pension funds is also observed. There is rise in investment in equity and debt securities by the household sector. Finally, he said, - the development of financial markets is an ongoing process and should not be considered as an event. It is important that the authorities and market participants should continue to play even more proactive and complementary roles to sustain the future large investment needs of a growing country such as India.

The day long conclave was conspicuous by three very noteworthy sessions. The first session, titled, "Indian Financial Markets: At the Cross Roads" was moderated by Mr. Tamal Bandyopadhyay, Consulting Editor of Business Standard & Chairman Emeritus, Banking and Finance Committee, BCC&I. In his well articulated speech Mr. Jaspal Bindra, Executive Chairman of Centrum Group elaborated on how liquidity was masking other challenges of the market for quite some time. He also spoke in details why NBFC would remain the last mile connectivity between the players of the market. Mr. P H Ravikumar, Independent Director, Utkarsh Small Finance Bank and Former Chairman, Bharat Financial Inclusion focused on NBFC and its major issues. He also said that the recovery in micro-finance is 99.99% and thus sooner the fate of the financial market would be decided by the lower middle class people. Another prominent panelist, Mr. Ritesh Kumar, MD & CEO, HDFC ERGO General Insurance focused on agricultural sector and its situation in the Country and how the sector played a major role in deciding the market situation in many parts of India. Mr. Sunil Kanoria, Vice Chairman, SREI Infrastructure Finance Ltd said that NBFC business model needed to be revisited. Mr. Tarun Chugh, MD & CEO, Bajaj Life Insurance Co. Ltd. discussed about bank consolidation measures taken by the Government. He said that bank consolidation was not an easy task and it would have been better if it was done in a more planned way.

The second session was an Experts Roundtable on "Indian Capital Market: Challenges and Opportunities" and was moderated by Mr. Ramesh Kumar Bansal, Chairman, Banking and Finance Committee, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Head - Treasury, ITC Ltd. The opening speaker of the Round Table was Mr Ashwani Bhatia, MD & CEO, SBI Mutual Fund. He said, "If the Government is right, people's confidence will return soon". Ms. Lakshmi Iyer, DEBT CIO and Head Products, Kotak Mutual Fund spoke about the need of liquidity in the banking system. Mr Shobit Mehrotra, Senior Fund Manager - Fixed Income and Head Credit, HDFC Mutual Funds brought international perspective into the discussion and spoke about how Socialist China.s economy benefitted by opening the market. He also advocated for tax incentive at least for some years. Mr. Manish Gunwani, CIO-Equity Investments, Reliance Nippon Life Mutual Fund interpreted equity crisis as a sort of internal slowdown. He said, "As macro parameters are healthy, it can be hoped that the market situation would be better in next two to three quarters". Mr. Amardeep Chopra, Group President & Head Fixed Income, UTI Mutual Fund said, "currently market stands at wait and watch kind of a situation".

The concluding session was on "Indian NBFC, Micro Finance, Small Finance Bank & Payment Bank: The Road Ahead". The session was moderated by Mr. Tamal Bandyopadhyay and the panelists were Mr. R Baskar Babu, MD & CEO, Suryoday Small Finance Bank Ltd. and Mr. Rishi Gupta, MD & CEO, Fino Payments Bank. Both of them focused on the rural economy and lower and middle income groups. They said this section has a major role to play towards the success of micro finance and small finance banking system.

The conclave witnessed a participation of 170 - 180 participants belonging from various financial sectors like Insurance and Mutual Fund Companies, Insurance Broking Houses, Securities Companies, officials from Banks & NBFCs, Rating Agencies, CFO.s & other senior officials of various corporate houses, individuals registered with AMFI, Consultants, Stock Exchanges, Trading Houses & Stock Brokers.