New Nokia board member says mobile phones can bring bank access to rural poor
Indian banking pioneer joins Mobile Phone team
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One might not imagine at first glance that Lalita Gupte would be a former chief executive of India's second-largest private bank. Dressed in the traditional sari, this diminutive Gupte looks more like a gentle mother of a family than a hard-boiled corporate executive.
Gupte speaks enthusiastically about her bank, about the potential of mobile phones, the position of women in the Indian family, and in the development of India.
Gupte says that her appointment to the Board of Nokia was a great honour for the woman, who made her career at the ICICI Bank. On Thursday she was named the first Asian member of the Board of Directors of the company.
Gupte has an illustrious career behind her. She has been involved in almost everything that is linked with the development of India's financial markets during the past three decades. ICICI, which began as a development bank financed by the World Bank, has grown with the help of Gupte and her colleagues into an institution which serves 25 million customers.
"We have been trail blazers in brokering stock, capital investment, credit rating, and Internet banking", Gupte says.
The bank went into the consumer market in the late 1990s when a class of IT experts began to rise up in India, experiencing rapidly-growing prosperity. At that time there were 150 cash machines in the whole country; ICICI soon opened 1,000 more ATMs.
"People don't have time to stand in line in a bank to get cash. Services need to be available 24 hours a day. Cheaper housing loans were also needed quickly", Gupte says.
Under Lalita Gupte, ICICI became the first Indian company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange about ten years ago.
A big challenge today is the extension of financial services to the poor majority of India who live in rural areas.
ICICI works together with organisations that provide micro-credits. The activity is not charity on the part of the bank.
"Everything has to be based on creating sustainable development. The availability of financing creates enterprise and employment. People who prosper also become customers of a bank."
Mobile telephones have a central role in the proliferation of banking services, Gupte says. A mobile phone can serve as an electronic wallet and a tool for money transfers.
Nokia is currently experiencingn its strongest growth in Asia, and the company had been looking for a board member with a knowledge of the region for a few years already.
Gupte, who was completely unknown to Nokia's management, was found after inquiries were made. She retired from her post at the helm of ICICI last October, and was therefore available for the post.
In India Gupte has received plenty of attention as a pioneering businesswoman. She says that women are rapidly rising into positions of corporate administration in India.
"There are very many women in the technology and banking sectors, and an entire new generation of them are coming", she says.
In Western countries, female executives rarely trumpet family values. Gupte feels that womanly softness is an advantage in working life as well. She has two children herself.
"Although a completely new, modern India has emerged, the importance of the traditional family has not gone away.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 4.5.2007 - TODAY |
 New Nokia board member says mobile phones can bring bank access to rural poor |
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