India 2 to 5 Trillion: The Road Ahead

Shri Subhash Chandra Garg is the current Economic Affairs Secretary and Finance Secretary of India.

He belongs to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), 1983 batch, Rajasthan cadre. Sh. Garg has degrees in Commerce and Law from the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India and is a professionally qualified Cost and Works Accountant and a Company Secretary. Shri Subhash Chandra Garg was Executive Director in the World Bank Group for Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Sri Lanka from November, 2014 to July, 2017. Mr. Garg served on the Board of Directors for the International Bank for Reconstruction & Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), collectively referred as the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).

Shri Garg has over 34 years of experience in administration, management and public policy, in finance and several development sectors – agriculture, education, energy and rural development. He has managed government finances both at the Centre and in the State of Rajasthan. In Government of India, he worked as Director in the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) and Joint Secretary in the Department of Expenditure (DoE), in the Ministry of Finance and in the State of Rajasthan in various capacities as Secretary (Expenditure), Secretary (Budget) and Principal Secretary of Finance. He also occupied other senior positions in the Central Government as Joint Secretary (Agriculture) and Additional Secretary (Cabinet).

Mr. Jawed Ashraf joined as High Commissioner of India to the Republic of Singapore in November 2016.

A career diplomat, High Commissioner Ashraf joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1991. He served in Frankfurt and Berlin from 1993 to 1999. He worked in the Americas Division of Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi from 1999 to 2004. He completed a three-year tenure as Counsellor at the Embassy in Kathmandu in 2007. From 2007 to 2010, he served as Counsellor and Minister for Political Affairs in Washington DC and then headed the Americas Division in the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi from 2010 to 2012.

High Commissioner Ashraf served as Joint Secretary in the Prime Minister‘s Office under former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and then Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. His portfolio included External Affairs, Defence, National Security Council, Atomic Energy and Space. He returned to Ministry of External Affairs in January 2016 and was Joint Secretary (Special Projects) until his appointment in Singapore.

High Commissioner Ashraf studied Economics at St. Stephen‘s College, New Delhi and Management at Master‘s level at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

He recently published a coffee table book of his photographs, “A Day in the Life of Kathmandu”, dedicated to the victims of the Nepal earthquake of April 2015. Outdoor interests include tennis and trekking in Himalaya.

He is married to Dr. Ghazala Shahabuddin, an ecologist and conservation biologist.

Manu Bhaskaran is Director of Centennial Group International and the Founding Director and Chief Executive Officer of Centennial Asia Advisors. Mr. Bhaskaran has more than 30 years of expertise in economic and political risk assessment and forecasting in Asia. Before joining the Centennial Group, he was Chief Economist for Asia of a leading international investment bank and managed its Singapore-based economic advisory group. Mr. Bhaskaran is a well-regarded commentator on Asian financial and economic affairs, and has regular columns in business weeklies such as the Edge in Singapore/Malaysia. He serves as Member of the Regional Advisory Board for Asia of the International Monetary Fund; Senior Adjunct Fellow, Institute of Policy Studies; Council Member of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs; and Vice-President of the Economics Society of Singapore. Mr. Bhaskaran has a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a Bachelor’s degree in economics from Cambridge University. He has also qualified as a Chartered Financial Analyst. He is based in Singapore.

Neeraj Seth, Managing Director, is the Head of Asian Credit and has been in his current role since 2009. He is the portfolio manager for the Asian Tiger Bond Fund and Asia Pacific private credit fund. He leads the strategy for Asian Fundamental Credit and is responsible for providing oversight of the investment process, performance, and the team’s infrastructure as well as determining the strategic direction and growth initiatives of the platform. He has been responsible for building the Asian fundamental credit business since 2009.

Prior to joining BlackRock in 2009, Mr. Seth was a Senior Vice President focusing on the Asia Pacific market for R3 Capital Partners. He previously held a similar role with the Global Principal Strategies team at Lehman Brothers. Previously, he was an Associate Partner with McKinsey & Company where he was in the leadership group for the Technology & Telecom practice in Southeast Asia.

Mr. Seth earned a BE degree in mechanical engineering from Delhi University and an MBA degree in finance from the Indiana University of Kelley School of Business.

Mr. B. Prasanna is Group Head – Global Markets – Sales, Trading and Research at ICICI Bank Ltd. He is responsible for treasury research, trading, market-making and sales/distribution of all treasury products relating to fixed income, foreign exchange and derivatives. He is also the Chairman of ICICI Securities Primary Dealership (I-SEC PD). He joined the bank in November 2016 and prior to this appointment was the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of I-Sec PD. He has rich experience in the Indian Treasury markets and has been instrumental in contributing to a number of developmental efforts with respect to product development, widening and deepening of the Indian Institutional market.  He has been a part of various committees formed by RBI, SEBI and FIMMDA for the development of new products in India.

He is currently the Chairman of FIMMDA (Fixed Income Money Market and Derivatives Association of India) and a director on the Board of CCIL (Clearing Corp. of India Ltd).  He has also served as the Chairman of the Primary Dealers Association.

He is a Chartered and Cost Account and a member of the CFA institute.

Anupam Verma is Chief Executive for ICICI Bank Singapore and Regional Head for South East Asia. ICICI Bank has a Qualified Full Banking License (QFB) in Singapore and offers banking services across Corporate, Institutional and Private banking. In his current role since 2014, he is responsible for developing and driving the Bank’s strategy for sustainable and profitable growth in the region.

Anupam started his career as a Management graduate with ICICI Ltd in 1999 in Project Financing for Oil & Gas sector (i.e exploration, refining, petrochemicals and fertilizers).

In 2002, he moved to Corporate Banking as a Client Banker, where he was responsible for coverage and delivering solutions across Commercial banking, Treasury and Investment banking products.

In 2009, he moved to International Banking as a Business Head- International Financial Institutions. In this role, he managed Bank’s business with 500 financial institutions across 60 countries. He was also responsible for Fund-raising for the Bank in International wholesale markets. During his tenure, ICICI Bank was awarded the “Best Borrower in India” by Finance Asia three years in a row.

Born 1974, Mr. Verma is B.Tech from The Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and completed his MBA from XLRI Jamshedpur in 1999.  He lives in Singapore, with his wife and two children.

Nitin Jaiswal is Head of Government Affairs & External Relations for Bloomberg in Asia-Pacific, the world’s most trusted source for real-time and historical financial data, news, research and analytics.

Based in Singapore, Mr. Jaiswal works with government, regulators, business leaders and think tanks to help advance market development in emerging and developed countries. Through strategic initiatives, spanning financial market structure to green finance, he looks to leverage Bloomberg’s global network and expertise as a leading data and information company to affect positive change and accelerate development in Asia, a region that is shaping global markets.

Mr. Jaiswal has held various senior leadership roles managing key business for Asia-Pac since joining the company in India in 1997.