ROOTS TO FRUITS
This Book is all about Yerram Raju? Not just that. Apart from his life story,
this book is the
quint essence of development banking
and financial inclusion that the country
has been pursuing as its unfinished economic
agenda.
He is perhaps one of the few to start his
writing spree at the age of 20 and continuing for 60 years in a row. Not a
single year was without a few articles from him, that too in reputed financial
dailies and journals. This is perhaps his last book in life, that will end up
with the publication of Part 2 by December 5, 2020.
Large families of the ilk to which the author belonged are
consigned to history, following the family planning since the 1950s. Eldest of
the twelve children, the author describes vividly how his parents have
instilled great values, ethics and austerity. This formed the roots of his
career path to pluck of the fruits in his later part of life.
Author’s mother proudly said that her contribution to GDP of
India was significant with two of her children – one a reputed
gastroenterologist in Texas and the other a reputed Certified Professional
Accountant in the US. The second son is a Professor in Yoga at Chennai. With
all the sisters married to their choicest spouses, they had a fulfilled life. The
parents of the Author Dr. Raju who lived beyond 94yrs and 81yrs respectively
had an enriching life nurturing great ambitions in their children.
The Book depicts his intense affection towards parents, his own family, and great reverence to his teachers. His verse on Mother and
his prose on Father are
moving stories. It is a tell-tale story of the growth of a large family and its contribution to the growth
of the economy. All the children of this large family,
however, preferred nuclear families.
Since Yerram Raju, the author, grew up in austerity and
simplicity, he saw his three
daughters grew up in
the same environment. Though
they all wanted
to stay in India when married, all of them moved to different countries.
The Book offers lessons to several upcoming youth on the choices
one can make when confronted with multiple options having equal opportunities
for career growth. The interviews faced by him can guide the youth. His career
in Textile Mills threw up lots of challenges that he ably faced. His parental
dependence made him leave the opportunity to take up one of the more challenging
competitive careers – civil services and financial services.
His choice of banking backed by emotion had its fruits. He could
see the rarest of rare things to happen – retirement of his father serving the
same branch where he was posted as Agent, at his hands. Doing PhD instead of
pursuing professional course that would have seen a rise in the banking career
faster than he had, speaks of his continued choice of academics. This enabled
him later to teach the civil servants at Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy of
Administration, Mussoorie and Administrative Staff
College of India.
He was also an external
examiner for doctoral degree of three universities. It is difficult to find
a banker adorning s u c h
position.
Lending to agriculture and allied activities, particularly to
the financially excluded like the marginal small farmers, potters, small
enterprises was an obsession with him. Simplification of systems and procedures
always attracted his attention.
The author in this brief
of 130-odd pages,
describes the journey
of development banking
as it took place post nationalization of Banks in India. For those looking
for solutions to the
problems of credit to the poor and needy, this
book offers ready-made solutions. The presentation is simple and lucid.
According to him,
“Development Banking
involves deposit mobilization through innovative schemes considering the needs
of a variety of customers and servicing them, both online and offline, and
financing development projects that add scheme specific infrastructure for
lending and financial inclusion. Social banking is part of development banking.
Both require efficient credit risk management. Extension services is part of
social banking. Handholding, mentoring, counselling are essential requirements
for social banking. It is treated as part of narrow banking, these days.”
He won many an accolade both in the
Bank and outside. One such is the recognition as International Man of the Year
1991 by the International Biographical Society, Cambridge for his contribution
to rural development.
This book offers lessons on recovery of agricultural loans.
According to the author, recovery is both an art and science. His success as
banker, offers many a lesson for the current day bankers deeply mired in NPAs.
The Book is laced with quite a few case studies and provides
lots of lessons on development banking. Part 1 of the Autobiography of the
author up to the age of sixty years, ends with his transition to academics and
consultancy. His relocation prompted by his stint with LBS National Academy
proved a good decision at the right time of his career.
Readers can look to Part 2 for a greater excitement as it covers
policy analysis of the country’s transition to liberalization, privatization,
and globalization. The key milestones in this part 1 indicate that the areas
would cover financial risk management and institutional innovation.
Available at Amazon store: www.amazon.in/amazon.com
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