I remember the reactions I got when we first visited factories to inspect the projects that we were funding. It was not easy for people to see a woman there. That was a time when most of these workplaces were not even equipped with a loo for women.

Treat me right and you will see the light…Treat me wrong and you will be gone!!

It is not often that idealism of student days finds adequate opportunity for expression in the later life of manhood.

I received my parents’ permission and went into the Navy on June 3, 1941.

If someone judges you,they are wasting space in their mind…Best part, it’s their problem.

I strongly believe that fundamental science cannot be driven by instructional, industrial and government or military pressures

As far as employees are concerned, clearly I like to communicate with them, since we are more than 40,000 people. I like to communicate either through e-mail or through video conferencing, which we do very often, and stream out videos and interviews. But more than that, I believe in traveling to my branches.

As far as the banking industry is concerned - and I am sure it must be true for various industries as well - is that the only thing that is constant is change. Your business models are changing, the customer demands are changing and the regulations are changing constantly.

ICICI has been a meritocracy. So, a huge amount a lot of responsibilities, big roles, challenges, have been given to women, not because they are men or women or so on, but they were just given to people who have - who the organization believes has the capability to perform.

There are lots of India-related business which is nourished overseas. I mean India-related business that is done off-shore. There are lot of funds that are invested in India and run by Indians but are being operated from outside, mainly because of the taxation laws.

I use my interaction with both my kids to know how the youth today relates to technology, their expectations in terms of mobility and social solutions by customer services-oriented businesses like banking.

Rather than worrying about entities, we should worry about the trends in technology that may cause disruptions... if we get so paranoid that banking is no longer going to exist and banks are going to get disrupted, I think that is a different worry.

The scope of activities for payments banks mainly includes acceptance of demand deposits, issuance of ATM/debit cards, payment and remittance services, and distribution of third-party products.

The MBA entrance exams are so quantitative-oriented that it keeps out more and more women from joining the MBA classes. If we were to make the entrance exams more all-rounded, you could see more participation.

I have always been saying that while - the legislative reforms are good, but there are so many low-hanging fruits that we have look for by taking executive decisions. I think the government is actually moving in the right direction.

Our institutional framework needs to be bolstered further. We have to implement laws like the proposed Bankruptcy Code and GST (Goods and Services Tax), which will create efficiencies and strongly support the business environment.

Mark-to-market losses are not real loss. It's a notional loss. What we can monitor is the credit quality of the underlying papers. Are the companies paying interest on time? Is there any deterioration in the credit quality of these companies?

As we were growing retail, and it was a huge growth phase, it was very important to keep our quality under control. Therefore, it was not just distribution, not just back-office operations, but also the risk-management practices. And these we learned together, supported by technology.

My priorities are going to be to play a very balanced role in the sense that I have to keep an eye on the challenges in the environment. At the same time, I have to keep an eye on the optimism that is there for India.