Dr. Vivek Bhandari, President IIHMR University appointed Independent Director of the Jio Payments Bank

To confront India’s challenge of financial inclusion, one of the most-awaited entrants in the banking sector, the Jio Payments Bank Ltd, has appointed IIHMR University’s president, Dr. Vivek Bhandari as one of four independent directors.  A joint venture of Reliance Industries Ltd, and India’s largest bank, the State Bank of India, Jio Payments Bank was was incorporated on November 10, as per documents filed with the Registrar of Companies (RoC). In September 2015, this payments bank had received an in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India.  Dr. Bhandari’s active involvement in this high-impact initiative will give IIHMR University a central presence in India’s fast changing technological revolution.

As per the RoC filings, the Jio Payments Bank has seven directors on its Board.  In addition to Dr. Bhandari, it has Mr. H Srikrishnan, who is also the CEO designate of the bank, Mr. Alok Agarwal, CFO of Reliance Industries, and SBI’s deputy managing director of Corporate Strategy & New Business, Ms. Manju Agarwal, who is also on the board of National Payments Corporation of India.  Apart from these, the Board consists of the CEO of financial advisory firm Moelis India, Manisha Girotra, who is also on boards of Mindtree and Ashok Leyland; Mr. Rajendra Kumar Saraf, who is a board director for Itz Cash Card; and Mr. Sethurathnam Ravi, who is a director on boards of several other companies such as IDBI Bank Ltd, BSE Ltd, Aditya Birla Health Insurance Co Ltd, BOI Merchant Bankers Ltd.

Select media coverage is as follows:

http://indianexpress.com/article/business/business-others/jio-reliance-state-bank-of-india-ril-joint-venture-4404137/

http://www.financialexpress.com/industry/jio-payments-bank-ril-sbi-joint-venture-incorporated-2-days-after-demonetisation/461088/