My Alma Mater was holding a panel discussion on Diversity & Inclusion in the Financial Sector in India and I was asked to pen down my views in brief on the same. My reference point was my career in Banking and my experience there in is the body of this article, which I thought of sharing on my website too.
People Power
In my long stint in Retail Banking, Diversity and Inclusion added colours and vibrancy to a tough business where we dealt with large volumes and small tickets on a daily basis and I always felt that this diversity had tremendous power. It was people’s power.
Granular & Complex
The business which I experienced across various states and cities in the country, was both granular and complex due to its diversity not only in its demographic form but also economically. This phenomenon made the business both challenging and interesting to say the least. The advent of Financial Inclusion, a major initiative of the Government and the RBI, further accentuated both the granularity and complexity of the business at hand. The rewards of this massive initiative have been equally colossal and are having and will continue to have far reaching positive consequences in making the country a progressive and a stable economy.
Ecomonic Diversity & Inclusion
The exposure to retail banking basically was an exposure to a wide spectrum of economically diverse groups of customers. The ticket size varied dramatically from one end of the spectrum to the other. Their business requirements too swung between two extremes. There were customers for whom banking was as new as it could be. Saving money was a premium and a big effort. There was nothing else which they desired from a product point of view. On the other side there were demanding customers looking for a variety of products from investments to retail loans to customised offerings. In the middle of course there were the good old saving masters who have been carrying the mantle of our cultural savings ethos.
Such Diversity has led to a host of products in both assets and liabilities and has in no uncertain terms expanded the scope of innovation and creativity in banking in particular. This diversity and inclusion have also thrown up a host of opportunities in other sectors too viz. the Insurance sector where the fact that we are a grossly underinsured nation has been unearthed, particularly when it comes to Health.
Demographic Diversity & Inclusion
This factor is an extremely interesting facet of our country. We have people of different communities, languages, cultures, gender and ages seeking financial services under one roof. For the purpose of illustration, there are diverse dialects spoken in different parts of one of the states I worked in and therefore to deepen customer relationships it becomes imperative for institutions imparting financial services to have people speaking the same dialect. Such a strategy has been impactful.
It makes it that much critical to recruit people locally. With Financial Inclusion having settled well in the system generating a large market place, recruitment of locals is imperative to further the goals and objectives of Financial Inclusion. This is a great opportunity for generating employment and the results are beginning to show.
Impact of Digital Technology
With India becoming a power centre for digital technology. there is no doubt that this technological advancement has caused a tremendous disruption in the financial sector as a whole. With still a large market ( caused by Financial Inclusion ) yet to be tapped, the country is on the path of becoming a digital behemoth, which is a manifestation of India’s Diversity and Inclusion.
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Diversity & Inclusion : The Financial Sector
