Banking Sector in India

Hi Friends...over the last few months, I have had an increasing number of graduates seek my counsel on career opportunities in the Banking sector in India. As a man of the world, I take keen interest in skill-gaps across sectors. Therefore, I believe the time is right for me to put my thoughts on paper for the benefit of my readers.

The Indian Banking Industry is fairly mature in terms of supply, product-range and reach. Banking in India employs 1,175,149 people in a total of 109,811 branches in India and 171 branches abroad (2010 figures). Table1 below gives a very broad picture of the structure of the Banking sector in India. There are a total of 361 Scheduled Banks in India of which 293 are commercial and 68 are cooperative.

Table1 (2013 figures)

Table2 below provides a picture of the employment scenario at banks in India (note: figures from Regional Rural Banks and Cooperative Banks are not included). Public Sector banks contribute to ~70% of all banking employees. New private and Foreign banks together account for ~20% of employees. In terms of growth, maximum growth is seen in the new private sector banks.

Table2 (2013 figures)

The RBI is also set to grant new banking licences this year. While 25 companies have applied for licences, sources claim that fewer than half a dozen will actually get licences. Once licenses are obtained (probably soon after the new government is formed post elections), each company will get 18 months in which to submit a business plan. Thus, mass recruitments at newly licenced banks are ~2 years away. However, given the maturity of our public sector banking and the dynamism of our private sector banking...and throwing the newly licensed banks into this mix, 2014-15 seems a good time for fresh graduates to enter the banking sector in India.

Would love to read your comments on this post any answer your queries, if any.

Sources:

Wikipedia

RBI Profile of Banks

Vishy Anand gets another crack at Magnus Carlsen

I'm just so so pleased for Viswanathan Anand, who, after emerging as the winner in the recently held Candidates Tournament at Khanty-Mansiysk gets a crack at MC later this year. I must confess that after his recent modest performances, I was skeptical that Anand would go very far in the Candidates. But, very gladly, he's proven his detractors wrong. I just hope that he puts up a better fight against MC this time around.

Baby Falak

There are some incidents that cause you immense sadness, sadness that is truly impossible to put in writing. Baby Falak's death is one such incident. Unfortunately, her passing away was pushed aside by more headline grabbing news, Tendulkar's 100th ton and the budget.

The country knows what condition she was found in in January. When I first heard her story, the poignancy of her tragedy moved me to the extreme. I had recently become a proud father of a girl and I could just not bear to imagine something of this nature happening to anyone, let alone an infant. I prayed, hoped, implored for her recovery. It was not to be. She passed away on 15th March, perhaps unnoticed by many, but for me personally, taking a little bit of my heart with her. The way this world had treated her, we didn't deserve her in our midst.

TELLY-FREE time

Earlier this month, we had some furniture work done at home, which required us to disconnect our television. Effectively, we were without TV for close to two weeks, and this proved to be a real blessing in disguise. My family bonds are extremely thick and we share a beautiful relationship at home, but truth be told, on most ordinary days, once everyone is back home in the evening from his/her respective routine, we tend to plonk ourselves in front of the idiot box. All attempts at a conversation are subordinated to the telly.
The first couple of days without the TV were the severest in terms of withdrawal symptoms, but as more days unraveled, we realized that we were have great conversations and were really bonding a lot more as a family. It not only got us closer as a family, but was also a lot more fun. This got me wondering on the dominance of television at home and how we were actually much better off without it. But before I could carry this thread of thought towards any meaningful action, the furniture work was done, the television was hooked back on and we all slipped into our habits of old. However, this glimpse of life without the telly, without the ceaseless allure of the box, has got my better instincts hankering for more telly-free time.

ball tampering...II

So the question now is, “Do I support legalizing ball tampering?”. And the answer is that I do not. If ball tampering is legalized, it will be very difficult to put a line between what should be allowed and what should not. The focus of bowling will shift from bowling skills to ball manipulating skills, a wholly unattractive prospect.
I do, however hope for some other interventions that will help even the contest between bat and ball. After all, most people will agree that Cricket is most fun when there is a keen contest between bat and ball rather than just between the batsmen of two teams. So here are some suggestions that could help:

1. Restrict the size (width) of the bat blade. The bat blades today are nearly as thick as the face and it really is cruel on the bowlers when mishits and edges cross the rope. Thinner blades should ensure that mishits remain in the field of play, giving the bowling side a chance to catch the erring batsman out.

2. Make ball seams more prominent. There is inconsistency in the prominence of the seam between balls manufactured by different companies. While there is much scope for consistency, there should also be a move in favor of balls with more prominent seams and perhaps even rules that define the minimum and maximum prominence of the seam, which should take a level that is more that what it is at today. This will naturally benefit fast bowlers, but will also help spinners as gripping will be easier. However, spinners will have to watch out for seam-cuts. They can get very painful over time.

3. Make fairer pitches. The recent Champions League run-fest is a case in point. Enough has already been said on this topic. I need not add anything more.

4. Do not pull the boundary ropes in for limited overs matches.

5. Start with two new balls, one at each end.

6. And a final word to bowlers EVOLVE! Much has changed in Cricket over the past few decades. Fielding has advanced to new and dizzy levels since the lazy days of yore. Even batting has evolved to the demands of the modern game. There is so much more that bowlers can do to enhance their craft if only they collectively get out of this defensive and ‘being-persecuted’ mindset and meet the challenges of modern Cricket head-on.

what is ball tampering?

It was interesting to read about Shoaib Akhtar bringing up the ball tampering issue in his autobiography, “Controversially Yours”. His opinion is that ball tampering should be legalized, the rationale being that everyone does it and in a game which is so blatantly lopsided in favour of the batsmen, every little that the bowler can do to even the contest should be welcomed. So let us understand this a bit more. What is ball tampering? According to Cricket law 42, sub-section 3, legitimate treatment of the ball is restricted to polishing it without the use of any artificial substances. Therefore, bodily secretions like sweat and saliva are allowed to be used to shine the ball. The ball is also allowed to be polished on the clothes that the cricketers wear provided there is no artificial polishing or unusually abrasive material used. Use of a towel to clean mud off the ball is allowed under the umpire’s supervision. Therefore, the use of Vaseline, toffee induced saliva, and other such material to shine the ball is considered tampering. The use of zips, shoe nails, finger nails, bottle caps other sharp objects to roughen up the ball is considered tampering, and to alter the shape and prominence of the seam, using nails to pick the seam, or to alter the shape of the ball outside the natural scope of the game, is considered tampering.
The second question is, why tamper with the ball? I will not go into the physics of swing bowling. Suffice is to say that it is believed that altering the shape of the ball or making the seam more prominent, especially unevenly prominent, or tampering with the ball to increase the difference between the shiny and the scruffy sides influences air interaction with the ball and the pitch response to the seam, and can therefore provide prodigious swing and seam movement.
We’ve now very briefly looked at what ball tampering is and why some bowlers resort to it. In my next post, I will opine on whether it should be legalized or not.

Salute our HOCKEY boys!!

India WON the Asian Hockey Championship yesterday by beating arch-rivals Pakistan in a tense penalty shootout in the Finals played at Ordos, China. Congratulations to the boys, who thoroughly deserve this.

It's a shame that none of the sport channels telecast this match. In fact, ESPN and Star Cricket telecast the India-England cricket match concurrently. One hopes that this win will see some more, and hopefully sustained interest in Indian Hockey.

All-round Spinner

In 2002, in a talk in Melbourne, I had predicted that one of the most important ways for spin bowling to survive would be to do away with the largely unnecessary classifications of leg spin and off spin. After all, a fast bowler isn’t expected to stick to only out-swing or in-swing. In fact, he is required to develop and use a much wider repertoire of pace and length variations, swing, seam, cut and anything else that he may be able to conjure up. Then why this artificial limitation on spinners? I had argued that a spinner should be able to develop and bowl all kinds of spin and that doing so will not dilute his art but will enhance all aspects of it. I had taken the example of Sachin Tendulkar – in my opinion, the best spinner that India never had – bowling all kinds of spin and doing so quite effectively.
The arguments against this were three-fold. One, that off-spin is finger spin and leg-spin is wrist spin, both requiring very different physiological manipulations. Two, that the doosra and the googly obviate the need for an all-round spinner, and three, that setting a field to multiple spin is extremely challenging. I don’t buy any of these arguments. Firstly, the ‘physiological manipulations’ that one speaks of aren’t that many. Appropriate practice at the junior level will allow for easier assimilation of both disciplines. I suppose, control is essentially what one is talking about and I firmly believe that, through practice, control can be brought to all flavours of spin. Secondly, having variations within off-spin or leg-spin does not mean that an all-round spinner cannot develop all these variations. Thirdly, with modern inventions like the reverse-sweep, traditional fields for defensive and attacking spin bowling are in any case changing. Dual spin will help evolve an entirely new set of field placement logic.

I also argued that over-reliance on a particular set of muscles causes stress injuries over the long run. Distribution of work-load across a wider musculature, as in the case of an all-round spinner would also reduce injury risk and lengthen careers.

Any opinions on this?

Left-Handers facing up to bouncers

Discerning viewers will have noticed that the three batsmen who had real trouble with the short ball were all left-handers – Abhinav Mukund, Suresh Raina, and Yuvraj Singh. As a left-hander myself, I feel certain that it is much tougher for lefties to negotiate bouncers from right arm fast bowlers than it is for righties. The angle itself is such that more often than not, the short ball heads for the body. In such a scenario, it is difficult to sway backwards out of the way of squat to let the ball pass over. The only way I have found which works for all seasons is to bend from the waist under the ball. Since this technique is not classical and is never taught, it is up to the batsman himself to work this out and then to implement it.