Table Talk. On being the Dravid of banking

Abstract

Federal Bank chief Shyam Srinivasan wants the lender to be the most admired bank in India. For an engineering graduate, and a Tamilian, there can be nothing better than the TVS group, and they could not understand their son becoming a salesman at a shop,” he recalls. “In the mid-’80s, Computer Point was India’s first computer retail sales outlet — a classy air-conditioned showroom on GN Chetty Road in Chennai’s T Nagar area — but there was no denying that it was store salesman job,” he says with a grin.

But that was a temporary job — Srinivasan joined IIM Calcutta in 1985. “Who were your batch mates — are you in touch?” you ask. “I live with one and see her every day,” he says, with a mischievous grin, describing how he met his wife Maya at IIM. “She was the one everyone turned to for notes, explanations, everything — I really lucked out,” he says. Other batch mates include TV Narendran, the CEO & MD of Tata Steel; Vikram Sakhuja, Group CEO, Madison Media.