Yoga lessons to get banks into shape: Swami Sukhbodhanandji to give lectures at Gyan Sangam

NEW DELHI: ‘A step towards new banking paradigm’, that’s what the finance ministry calls the two-day bankers retreat, aka Gyan Sangam, starting in Pune on January 2. And there’ll not only be yoga lessons to help India’s public sector bank chiefs take that step.

There will also be Swami Sukhbodhanandji, often described as a ‘corporate guru’ and author of such books as Oh Mind, Relax Please!

The swami, founder chairman of Prasanna Trust will clearly be the star attraction at the finance ministry-organised retreat. The ministry today provided details of the event, where public sector bank chiefs will be closeted with the Prime Minister, the finance minister, the RBI governor and senior North Block officials. Some attendees will travel to the venue in a Volvo bus, the proximity designed to elicit team spirit and strength of ideation.

Swami Sukhbodhanandji will give a talk on ‘Leadership and Change Management’ on the second day of the retreat. Yoga lessons on the second day are supposed to put bankers in the perfect frame of mind for such motivational talk as well as other lectures, though these will be from more conventional sources: successful bankers.

The finance ministry informed that discussion groups will be formed on six issues that include consolidation & restructuring of PSBs for better efficiency, governance & capital efficiency. Invited external experts include, KV Kamath, ICICI Bank chairman, P J Nayak, ex-CMD, Axis Bank, Paresh Sukhantkar, DMD, HDFC Bank and Bandhan founder Chandrashekar Ghosh. Kamath will share his wisdom on financial architecture of small enterprises. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will arrive on the second day of the retreat and the working groups will make brief presentations to him.

The finance ministry had earlier said that the final objective of the “retreat” will be to prepare a blue print for reforms. Swami Sukhbodhanandji has his task cut out.