Introduction
- · ISBN - 8184003498
- · Genre: Non Fiction
- · Publishers: Random House India
- · Price: Rs. 599/- (I got this book from the publishers for a review)
Barons of Banking highlights the contributions of
six distinguished personalities from the world of banking—Sir Sorabji
Pochkhanawala, Sir Purshotamdas Thakurdas, Sir Chintaman D. Deshmukh, A.D.
Shroff, H.T. Parekh, and R.K. Talwar— who not only played a pioneering role in
the growth of the institutions which they founded, or were actively associated
with, but left an indelible mark on the banking industry as a whole. Through
the narration of the history of five key institutions - the Central Bank of
India; the Reserve Bank of India; the State Bank of India; the Industrial
Credit and Investment Corporation of India Ltd; and the Housing Development and
Finance Corporation Ltd—the author gives us a keen insight into the
contributions of these luminaries to banking in India. Also included is a
narration of the recommendations of important committees and commissions which
influenced the course of Indian banking.
Divided into four parts, the book uses hitherto
unused archival material recently put in the public domain by the RBI. Of
particular interest is a discussion of the acrimonious relationship between Sir
James Grigg, the Finance Member of the Viceroy’s Executive Council and Sir
Osborne Smith, the first Governor of the RBI, which throws fresh light on a
spat which remains unprecedented not only in the bank’s history, but possibly
in all of banking history.
Meticulously researched and engagingly written,
this book will be of interest to both the academic and general reader and, of
course, to the professional banker interested in a selective peep into the
history of his profession.
Behind
The book
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An
exceptional book which is one-of-a-kind – Deepak S Parekh, Chairman HDFC
Limited
About
the author
Bakhtiar K. Dadabhoy is
a civil servant based in Mumbai. He was educated at Hindu College, Delhi
University, and at the Delhi School of Economics. He is the author of five
books including the best-selling Jeh: A Life of JRD Tata and Sugar in Milk: Lives
of Eminent Parsis. Dadabhoy also contributes articles to newspapers and
magazines. He did a daily column ‘This Day in History’ for the Hindustan Times
and HT Next for five years. His other interests include painting and quizzing.
He was on BBC’s Mastermind India in 2000.
Me
thinks
Having worked in the
financial services for almost a decade now Mr. Deepak Parekh is a person I
hugely admire for all that he believes in, does and stands for. When I read his
recommendation on this book I knew I had to read this one.
I have been seeing this
industry closely only since past 1.5 decades and yes it always made me wonder
how it all started. There must be some point where we did not have any banks or
loans facility. Someone must have thought of all these process. The RBI, CIBIL,
SEBI etc must have been construed by someone and outlined the way for them to
function. This book is an answer to all
of the questions one can ever think of with reference to this.
What fascinated me the
most was the detailing done by the author in elaborating each and every
minutest aspect of banking in terms of abbreviations, names, places all intact.
This book can easily be called the Bhagwad Geeta of banking with its detailed description
about the whole way it all came up. The author has used a very easy to
understand layman’s language making it a very easy read. The book owing to its
size it a bit of a heavy read with all the detailing involved but then when you
talk about history the books are always bulky.
As you hold the book in
your hands you realize you are holding treasure to be cherished and you can
feel the amount of hard work put behind it by the author. Tremendous efforts
which surely need to be applauded!
Overall an excellent book
to be read and a crown to have in one’s personal collection for it is surely a
tale each and every child of the country needs to know – Why we are, what we
are!
Foodie Verdict
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This book is like cheese grill sandwich - Crunchy, cheesy, yummy, delicious, tempting, mouth watering and thoroughly enjoyable (Read: filling)
P.S
This book has been received from Random House for review.