Narayanan Vaghul: Philanthropist First, Legendary Banker Second

In 1981, Narayanan Vaghul was appointed chairman and managing director at the Bank of India. At the age of 44, he was the youngest ever to claim the post in the history of the public sector bank.When his three-year term at the Bank of India was coming to an end in 1984, Vaghul sought to not seek a reappointment. He in fact wrote to Manmohan Singh, then Reserve Bank of India Governor, to allow him to step down. The request was due to a steady decline in the quality of banking provided by nationalised banks.He was pained by the interference from government officials and he was unable to overcome the problem of bank unions opposing technological advancement. Despite Singh's encouragement to continue, Vaghul decided to call it quits, as he told The Financial Express in an interview in 2010.This incident was a testament to Vaghul's storied history as a compassionate leader who was not afraid to step down when he either felt that his job was done or could not do it.On Saturday, Vaghul passed away in Chennai at the age of 88.In 1985, he went on to take over as chairman and managing director of the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India. The development finance institution was about 30 years old in 1985 and had done a lot to finance India's early phases of infrastructure development.Within a few years, Vaghul transformed ICICI Ltd. into a financial sector conglomerate, consisting of one of the country's premiere private sector banks. In 1996, after ICICI Bank came into existence, Vaghul decided to give up executive roles and hand over the bank's leadership to KV Kamath. By 2002, ICICI and ICICI Bank were merged. As its non-executive chairman, Vaghul continued his relationship with ICICI Bank till 2009, when he hung up his boots.As someone who encourages fresh blood to take banking forward, Vaghul was always a strong mentor for many.Under Vaghul and then Kamath, ICICI Bank built a large bench of strong young women leaders who went on to lead large institutions. These included Chanda Kochhar, Shikha Sharma, Zarin Daruwala, Kalpana Morparia and Renuka Ramnath. Some other leaders they oversaw include V. Vaidyanathan, MD & CEO, IDFC First Bank; K. Ramkumar, former executive director, ICICI Bank; and Sandeep Bakhshi, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank.In 2010, Vaghul was conferred with the third highest civilian honour of Padma Bhushan by the government for his contributions to trade and industry.During his retirement years, he guided leaders including Anand Mahindra, Ajay Piramal, Azim Premji and LN Mittal as board members in their respective companies. These years were also marked by his keen interest in philanthropy, something Vaghul credits his former boss and SBI Chairman RK Talwar for.He was closely associated with the creation and running of non-government organisations such as Pratham and GiveIndia and he even got involved with the Azim Premji Foundation.Education and alleviating poverty were two missions that Vaghul was closely involved in through these associations. A believer in "anonymous giving," Vaghul said that if people know that the giver is the one who is giving, he has not done his duty.“Corporate philanthropy is very much in the interest of the corporate as any corporation cannot function effectively unless society is stable and coherent. Companies that focus only on shareholders' returns fail in their objective to create overall societal wealth," Vaghul told one of his mentees and GiveIndia Founder Venkat Krishnan in an interview for Awakin.org in 2021.

Narayanan Vaghul: Philanthropist First, Legendary Banker Second

On Saturday, Vaghul passed away in Chennai at the age of 88.

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