Deepak Parekh, a legend from India’s financial capital, must be on your watchlist at Global Trends Festival 2020

• Global Trends Festival is one of the world's most prestigious events which will be live from Oct 19-23.
• While nobel laureates, some of the biggest political and corporate icons will provide thought leadership, it's a great platform to network with CXOs from around the world.
• Global Trends Festival 2020 is presented by AWS.
• Get your tickets now from BookMyShow.

A young chartered accountant from London had a plum job with Chase Manhattan when his charismatic uncle HT Parekh who was starting a new mortgage company which provides housing loans to middle class Indians.

Back in the late 70s, it was almost impossible for salaried Indians to take home loans, which are now available before ‘coffee gets cold’. The Parekhs had taken what was considered impossible and turned the business of housing loans into a profitable business, but also opened up new vistas for the real estate sector.

Ever since Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) has turned into an institution which spun off a bank in 1994, one that is today the country’s biggest private bank.

HDFC itself ventured into various businesses like insurance, asset management, mutual funds and in each of the businesses that they’re in, they’re amongst the top few. It’s 75-year old Chairman Deepak Parekh is a doyen of the country’s financial industry and earned himself the reputation of ‘trouble shooter’ in chief.

Mumbai’s financial community can’t be tired of narrating legends about his role in the efforts to save and revive scam-tainted companies like Satyam Computers and UTI.

Best amongst equals

In Parekh’s own words, every business that he gets into, he wishes to be amongst the top three institutions or not be in it at all. He chose both organic and inorganic routes to achieve this.

As India battles the pandemic, Parekh is one of the few voices that provide a ray of hope. In an interview with Shekhar Gupta of the Print, he said that India would see positive growth by next year. He also believes that India will do better than limp back to its pre-Covid days - which was slow even back then.

He is also on the board of several leading corporations across diverse sectors. He is the non-executive chairman in India of Siemens Ltd. He is also on the board of National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF).

It will also be worth noting how he sees this recovery playing out, and what India needs to do to recover from the current trough. Join us at the Global Trends Festival 2020 between October 19-23 from wherever you are.

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