India Credit Forum
Hosted by Bloomberg’s global network of credit journalists and the India Edition newsletter

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

He has held top positions in various markets bodies including the Chairmanship and Vice Chairmanship of FIMMDA, Vice Chairmanship of FEDAI (Foreign Exchange Dealers Association of India) and Directorship in the Board of CCIL (Clearing Corporation of India Ltd.) for multiple terms and steered various initiatives for developing the local financial markets and their integration with global financial markets. He also currently serves as Director on the Board of ICICI Securities Ltd. and the Chairman of I-Sec PD. He has been appointed by SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) as a Member of the Working Group for recommending reforms in the corporate bond market and by RBI (Reserve Bank of India) as a Member on the MIBOR (Mumbai Inter Bank Offered Rate) Benchmark Committee.

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

Pramod Kumar is the CEO and Head of Investment Banking for Barclays in India, and is based in Mumbai.
Pramod has over 30 years of investment banking experience spanning across M&A, ECM and Leveraged Finance. During his long career in banking, Pramod has led senior client coverage and companies across several sectors, including Industrials, Financial Services / Banking, Infrastructure, Consumer & Healthcare, Retail/Real Estate, Metals/Mining, TMT, etc. Pramod joined Barclays India in 2011 and has been heading its investment banking business for several years. He was appointed as the CEO of Barclays India from October 1, 2023. Prior to joining Barclays, Pramod spent over 9 years with Citigroup and was the Managing Director responsible for Industrials and FIG sectors, based in Mumbai.
Having worked on several complex transactions across a variety of sectors, Pramod has an impressive experience and knowledge across M&A and equity capital markets. Some of his notable transactions include Sale of Suven Pharma to Advent, Sale of Hexaware as well as Quest Technologies to Carlyle, Sale of HGS (now Sagility) and IGT to Barings Asia, sale of SB energy to Adani Green, Walmart’s acquisition of Flipkart, Sale of a logistics business in India to DP World (Dubai), Yokohama’s acquisition of Alliance Tires, Sale of Welspun Renewable to Tata Power, ADIA’s investment into a toll road platform in India, Abertis’ acquisition of toll road assets in India, KKR’s acquisition of Alliance Tires, Advent’s acquisition of Crompton Greaves Consumer business, Carlyle’s sale of Tirumala Milk to Lactalis of France, Tata Motors’ acquisition & financing of Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), MSAD’s acquisition of NY Life stake in Max New York Life, Metlife’s induction of PNB into Metlife JV in India, JV Advisory for UB Group with Heineken, Sale of L&T’s RMC business to Lafarge, and several equity and convertible bond raisings for clients.
Pramod is a graduate in Commerce (Hons) from SRCC, and a Masters in Finance, both from Delhi University.

Lakshmi Iyer is the CEO – Investment & Strategy at Kotak Alternate Asset Managers Limited (Formerly known as Kotak Investment Advisors Limited).  She has been with the Kotak Group for over 22 years.

As part of KAAML, she is responsible for investment advisory, product solutions spanning across fixed income, equities, real estate and alternates.

In KMAMC she was CIO Fixed Income & Head – Products. In this role she was responsible for credit research, deal execution, managing fund performance across all debt funds and assisting sales in client interaction. In addition to that, she has been a portfolio specialist, and managed product related initiatives such as product pricing and coordination with the funds management and sales team in that role. 

Prior to joining Kotak, Lakshmi worked with Credence Analytics Pvt Ltd, as a research analyst where she was tracking corporate bond markets in India and generating research reports. She was also instrumental in conceiving various financial software tools in collaboration with software and technical teams.

Lakshmi holds an MBA degree in finance from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies. 

Amrish has been with Deutsche Bank for close to 2 decades and in that time he has originated, advised and structured some of the largest and market leading trades across Private Credit; Capital Markets (debt and equity) and M&A. Amrish and team bring judgement to their clients financing and liquidity needs spanning routine issuances to the most complex and consequential trades. Recent representative transactions include financing and advising the Adani Group on its US$7 Billion acquisition of Holcim/Ambuja Cement; The US$ 1.78 Billion private credit financing for Shapoorji Pallonji; pvt structured trades for some of the largest business houses including their principle equity holders etc

Maheshwar Nataraj, Director, is responsible for leading the origination, evaluation and execution of private credit opportunities in India. Prior to joining BlackRock in 2019, Mr. Nataraj had more than 9 years of experience of which the last 8 years were spent in structured finance in India across different financial institutions and across different sectors and client profiles. In his last role, he was a key part of the structured finance team at JM Financial originating, evaluating and investing in opportunities in the private credit space in India where he was involved in financing over $250 million across more than 10 deals.
Mr. Nataraj completed his MBA with specialization in finance from NMIMS where he was part of the deans’ list and completed his engineering from Mumbai University with specialization in electronics and telecommunication.

Kaustubh is the Senior Country Officer for JP Morgan in India and Vice Chairman – Asia Pacific.  Kaustubh is a member of JPMorgan’s Asia Pacific Management Committee.

Kaustubh joined JPMorgan in 1997 and over the past 27 years he has been instrumental in driving some of the largest M&A, Debt and Equity transactions for clients in Asia and India.  He has built leadership positions for JPMorgan across critical sectors like FIG, TMT, Digital, Healthcare, Real Estate & Infrastructure, Conglomerates and Financial Sponsors by significantly deepening our client engagement with Companies in these sectors and nurturing and building these relationships over past two decades. 

His prior responsibility was Head of India and Co-Head South East Asia for Investment Banking.  He has also led our Asia Pac coverage for Power & Utilities. 

Prior to joining JPMorgan, Kaustubh has worked with Tata Group and Siemens Ltd. 

Kaustubh holds a Master of Management degree from IIT Mumbai (1997) and a B.E. degree in Mechanical Engineering from VJTI, University of Mumbai (1994). Kaustubh resides in Mumbai, India with his wife, Rupali and has a daughter and a son. 

Supriyo Bhattacharjee is presently working as Chief General Manager, Department of Banking Regulation and Development with additional charge for the Division of Payments and Settlement systems, IFSCA. In his prior avatar as a Central Banker, Supriyo has worked in the areas of Payments and Settlements Systems, Foreign Exchange reserve management and finally in the area of regulation of the Indian foreign exchange market. He joined Reserve Bank of India as Direct Recruit in Grade B in the year 2002 and took voluntary retirement as a General Manager in 2023 to join IFSCA.

In IFSC, Supriyo was part of the Padmanabhan Committee whose recommendation , inter alia, to permit Offshore Derivative Instruments (ODIs) from IFSC, was recently enabled through an amendment to SCRA by the Finance Act, 2023.

In IFSC, Supriyo is currently focussing on the development of a foreign currency settlement for IFSC Banking Units and authorisation of fintechs as payment service providers for enhancing the speed of cross border payments to and from India.

Nipa Sheth is the Founder and Director of TRUST Group a leading full-service financial services house in the Indian Bond Market. With over two decades of experience, she has been instrumental in shaping the fixed income market in India. She has significant exposure to structuring and investment with Institutional and non-institutional clients as well as in various
differentiated debt market instruments.
Nipa has been ranked amongst India’s Top 100 “Women in Finance” 2020, which is designed to identify the most successful and respected women professionals working in the areas of finance, financial services, financial education & financial journalism.
She has been Member of the Advisory Board – NSE and presently Chairperson of the ASSOCHAM National Council for Corporate Bond Market, Member of the FICCI Capital Markets Committee, Chairperson of the FICCI Debt Market Sub-Group and Member of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for the Bond Market Committee.

Mr. Ananth Narayan is currently a Whole Time Member of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), looking after Market Regulation Department (MRD), Alternative Investment Fund and Foreign Portfolio Investors Department (AFD), Enforcement, Enquiries & Adjudication Department (EAD), Office of Investor Assistance & Education (OIAE), and Department of Economic & Policy Analysis (DEPA). 

Prior to this current role, Ananth has had extensive experience of academia, governance, and international banking.

Between 2018 and 2022, Ananth was an Associate Professor at S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR), Mumbai. He also served on several boards, including as Independent Director on SBI Capital Markets, Additional Director (appointed by RBI) on Yes Bank Ltd., Public Interest Director (appointed by SEBI) on NSE Clearing Limited. 

Between 2009 and 2017, Ananth was with Standard Chartered Bank, last as Managing Director & Regional Head of Financial Markets, ASEAN and South Asia. Between 2006 & 2009, he was with Deutsche Bank, last as Managing Director, Global Rates, South Asia. Between 1993 & 2005, he was with Citigroup, last as Director, Financial Markets, South Asia. 

Ananth has also served on several RBI and SEBI committees and working groups.

Ananth holds a Post-graduate Diploma in Management from Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, and is a Bachelor of Technology (Electrical Engineering) from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

Reto Gregori is the deputy editor-in-chief at Bloomberg, whose Editorial & Research organization includes news, analysis and research for the Bloomberg professional service, Bloomberg.com, television, radio, video and three magazines, Bloomberg Businessweek, Bloomberg Markets, and Bloomberg Green. Previously, Reto was the chief of staff for Bloomberg News in New York; managing editor for Europe, Middle East and Africa, based in London; German and Nordic bureau chief in Frankfurt and the bureau chief in Zurich. Before joining Bloomberg as a reporter in 1995, Reto was an editor at the Swiss daily newspaper Der Landbote. He has an MA in History and English Literature from Zurich University.

Jeanette is Bloomberg’s Managing Editor for South Asia, overseeing coverage of one of the world’s fastest-growing economies and a region that is home to about a fifth of the global population.

After graduating in Mass Media from Mumbai’s St. Xavier’s College, Jeanette earned her Master’s degree in Political Economy from the London School of Economics. She was part of a team that won the 2017 Society of Publishers in Asia — SOPA — award for its coverage of India’s demonetization.

Jeanette is based in Mumbai.

Shannon Harrington is Executive Editor for global credit markets coverage at Bloomberg News, overseeing a team focused on everything from corporate bonds and private credit to corporate restructurings. He started at Bloomberg as a reporter in 2006, covering credit derivatives in the years before and after the global financial crisis.

Sarah Wells is a senior executive editor at Bloomberg News. Based in Singapore since 2016, she is a co-head of news for the APAC region, where Bloomberg News has approximately 700 staff, with a focus on Southeast Asia, South Asia and Australia/NZ.
Sarah worked at a business newspaper in her native New Zealand before joining Bloomberg in Sydney in 2009. She has held reporting, editing and management roles within the newsroom, specializing in coverage of credit, equities and other financial markets.
Sarah has a Bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies from Auckland University of Technology and is a CFA Charterholder.

Menaka Doshi is an award-winning journalist, editor and television host with close to three decades of experience in covering the Indian economy, the coming-of-age of big business groups and related local and international policy, law and tax matters. As Senior Editor at Bloomberg India, she works across multi media documenting the most important developments in business and policy through reported stories and interviews with leaders. Prior to this, she was founding managing editor at Bloomberg Quint, named in 2021 as among the top three best news websites in South Asia by the World Association of News Publishers. Menaka began her career at CNBC-TV18, where over 20 years she interviewed top business and government leaders, hosted award-winning primetime news shows (India Business Hour, Your world @ 10) and was host and editor of The Firm – India’s first television show on law, tax and audit. In 2005-06, Menaka was awarded the first Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award in the category of Business & Economic Journalism (Broadcast).