September 28, 2020
New Delhi: A high-profile international advisory board of the Jindal School of Banking & Finance (JSBF) at O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU) has been constituted. The first Board meeting was held on Saturday, 28th September 2020 to discuss ways to reshape finance education amidst the ongoing global recession and slowdown in financial markets.
The JSBF Advisory Board comprises of some of the most senior bankers and scholars in the field of finance in India, USA, France, Israel, and Australia. The JSBF Advisory Board is represented by heavyweights in the banking and finance industry including V.K. Bansal (Chairman, Morgan Stanley India), Rajeev Uberoi (Senior Group President, YES Bank India), Amar Sundaram (General Counsel, Royal Bank of Scotland India), Mohit Shukla (Managing Director, Barclays India); Shree Parthasarathy (Partner & National Leader, Deloitte India), Saloni Jhaveri (Head Investor Relations & Partnerships, National Investment & Infrastructural Fund) and Nitin Shah (Managing Director in the global financial services industry).
The JSBF Advisory Board also consists of luminaries from academia and policymaking including His Excellency Ron Malka, current Israeli Ambassador to India who previously served as the head of Tel Aviv Stock Exchange; Professor Christophe Jaffrelot (King’s College London); Professor Indu Shahani, the former Sheriff of Mumbai and the President of ISME School of Management & Entrepreneurship; Professor Shyam Sunder (Yale University), Professor Philomena Leung (Macquarie University); Professor Mike Ewing (Deakin University) and Professor Sarah Kelly (University of Queensland).
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had earlier announced that COVID19 will cause the global economy to contract by -3 per cent this year, which is much worse than the 2008 financial crisis. The contraction of India”s GDP by close to 30 per cent year-on-year in the last quarter has ramifications for the entire Indian banking and financial system. This requires a re-imagination of commerce and finance education, which is a goal the Jindal School of Banking & Finance (JSBF) has set for itself.
The Jindal School of Banking & Finance (JSBF) offers an innovative 3-year B.Com.(Hons.) programme that is structured for students to understand contemporary issues in finance, accounting, banking, law and technology. The Board also discussed a new 3-year B.A.(Hons.) Finance & Entrepreneurship, which JSBF will launch next month. The first session of this one-of-its-kind undergraduate programme in India will begin from August 2021.
Prof. C. Raj Kumar, the founding Vice Chancellor of O.P. Jindal Global University said that “the Jindal School of Banking & Finance, which was established in 2018 as the eighth School of O.P. Jindal Global University, has a vision to evolve as an institution that focuses on new technology-led finance and financial services to develop professionals who are aware of social, environmental, & ethical issues of global relevance. The values of JSBF are aligned with those of JGU in providing world-class education, inter-disciplinary learning and global exposure to students.”
Professor (Dr) Ashish Bharadwaj, Dean of the Jindal School of Banking & Finance and Chair of the Advisory Board said that, “the collective wisdom, inter-disciplinary expertise and the vast experience that our Board members bring will help define the goals of JSBF but also the means to attaining them. We are trying to find solutions to the current challenges of financial inclusion, access, ethics and sustainability, and how we can integrate them within our curriculum at the School of Banking & Finance. We are redefining finance education in a post-COVID19 world.”
Mr V.K. Bansal, Chairman of Morgan Stanley Investment Banking India, emphasised on the importance of Data Science for better management of risk and better decision making for all financial institutions. He shared that “academic institutions should prioritise teaching skills and tools that are critical to support and advance the finance industry. Data science in finance is an inter-disciplinary field for data mining, machine learning and big data analytics, and it must be fast-tracked.”
Ambassador Ron Malka, who founded a graduate programme in financial markets & banking in Israel before his appointment as the Israeli Ambassador to India, motivated everyone to make a meaningful contribution in these troubled times. Sharing his experience as a finance professor and a financial regulator, he said that “study programmes need to focus more on developing creativity and flexibility of mind, which are pertinent even for finance students to grapple with societal challenges.” He encouraged JGU to advance knowledge and build capacity in finance and technology through strong institutional collaborations with Israeli universities.
Dr. Indu Shahani, founding Dean of the Indian School of Management & Entrepreneurship, said that “we must ensure that future bankers and finance practitioners have a broader perspective of how the world of finance should work keeping in mind the ethical, managerial, and legal considerations. For finance students, understanding ethics and professional conduct are as important as learning fundamental issues using scenario-based teaching for conceptual clarity.”
Prof. Shyam Sunder, the James L. Frank Professor of accounting, economics, and finance at the Yale School of Management, and a professor in Yale University’s Department of Economics said that “quality of financial information, audit & accounting, and governance must be taught comprehensively so that the finance and banking industry has the right controls, practices and monitoring mechanisms for stable and balanced outcomes.” The JSBF Advisory Board discussed jobs of the future that are at the lowest risk of automation including that of technology managers, financial advisors, and legal professionals. This necessitates that the current training of students is such that they are comfortable working on issues at the intersection of finance, law, and technology.
Shree Parthasarathy, Partner & National Leader (Cyber risk and security, Deloitte emphasised on the importance on inculcating entrepreneurship with finance so that graduates are equipped with a sound understanding of entrepreneurial finance and risk assessment for old and new enterprises. The discussion among the Board touched on the skills needed for jobs of the future including technologies for financial services to meet the needs of the unbanked population and understanding the regulatory landscape as both producers and consumers of data. There is a need for future bankers to understand ethics better, for future entrepreneurs to understand disruptive technologies; for future accountants to understand contemporary legal and regulatory issues well.
