N Vaghul, ex-ICICI Bank Chairman, on ventilator

Narayanan Vaghul, the Indian banker who is largely credited for building the ICICI Bank, is on the ventilator, with his health being in a critical condition.

Vaghul, 88, commercial banker who started his career in State Bank of India, became the youngest chairman of a state-run lender – Bank of India – at 44. However, he quit banking in disgust due to interference from bureaucrats.

He was asked to take the helm of the ICICI Bank during the Rajiv Gandhi administration. Since financial liberalisation in 1991, numerous financial supermarkets have emerged, but Vaghul was unquestionably the pioneer of them all. If IDBI, UTI, and SBI all dabbled in different areas of the financial services industry, they did so by studying ICICI's Vaghul-authored strategy.


The ex-ICICI Bank chairman was also responsible for the return of another legend, KV Kamath, to India from the Asian Development Bank in the mid-1990s at his persuasion. Kamath sowed the seeds of consumer lending, partly to wean away the industry leaning ICICI Bank.

Vaghul also is a recipient of Padma Bhushan in 2010, in the Trade and Industry category.

He was also awarded The Economic Times Lifetime Achievement Award.
The philanthropist had also served as a director in several Indian conglomerates including Wipro, Mahindra & Mahindra, Apollo Hospitals and Mittal steel.