I come from a place called Rajapalayam in Tamil Nadu, India. Having done my schooling in Chinmaya Vidyalaya, I did my Computer Science Engineering from College of Engineering, Guindy (Anna University) and did my MBA from IIM, Calcutta.

--Ravindran Ramiah

Getting into the Banking Industry was by accident as I started my career in the manufacturing sector with Reliance Industries. It all started with an assignment related to implementation of Branch Automation System for a bank in Dubai. As luck would have had it, I had the amazing opportunity to be part of interesting projects in the banking sector covering most domains within the sector. The opportunity coupled with wonderful colleagues and mentors has led to an amazing ride.

--Ravindran Ramiah

As I said, the journey in this industry started with a project to implement Unisys Branch Automation System for bank. This project led to opportunities with other institutions and domains in this region. After few assignments, switched over to the customer-side and was engaged with wonderful institutions and fabulous mentors who didn’t hesitate to throw me in the deep end of the water and watch me swim across.

--Ravindran Ramiah

Being in the technology field, the importance of understanding the business side of things normally gets overlooked. This is one of the key areas I worked on, and it helped me a lot during this journey. The other key skill one needs to possess is to have the ability to work with a team and have empathy. While it might sound clichéd, every project and thereby the organization’s success is dependent heavily on the team. Therefore, it is necessary that one must have the ability to work with the team.

--Ravindran Ramiah

Every organization has certain unique characteristics and the current one is no different. The enthusiasm to embrace change in this organization is unlike in other organizations. That makes the job much easier.

--Ravindran Ramiah

Banking and Financial industry startups have the ability to touch the lives of multitude of people in a very positive manner unlike a startup in other sectors. Given my academic background and career, it was natural for me to be associated with startups in this domain. Startups have an energy and unbridled hope that is different than an established organization. The hope seems unreal most often and that is necessary for being successful. It is amazing to be part of the process wherein chaos becomes organized chaos and eventually a structure/system takes shape.

--Ravindran Ramiah

The industry is too big, and I am too small to list my contributions to the industry. As your career spans over decades, the biggest contribution one can provide is sharing of knowledge. That is what I try and do.

--Ravindran Ramiah

Inspiration is primarily from family, friends, colleagues, and mentors. I have been lucky to have encountered mentors who have been very gracious in sharing their knowledge.

--Ravindran Ramiah

The FinTech industry is uniquely placed to use its advancement to have a real impact across a vast majority of the population. From democratizing finance to having an easy and affordable payment infrastructure, Fintech has got lots to offer. Fintech initiatives have the power to impact the lives of business owners by reducing the total cost of doing business and improving the ease of doing business. For the end consumers, Fintech will be making the process easy and bureaucracy free. All of this is going to increase the economic activity across all sectors.

--Ravindran Ramiah

The best way to contribute is to share your knowledge and experience. As you share, you learn. This is the mantra that I have tried to live by.

--Ravindran Ramiah

Firstly, have clarity on how the organization/product/service is going to benefit the society in general. Any initiative that has the benefit of the society at its core, will always succeed. Secondly, spend money in the right activities at the right time. For example, there is no point in spending on marketing when your product/service is still in the early stages of development. Open the purse at the right time. Lastly, start an organization with an aim to run it and not sell it.

--Ravindran Ramiah

The unique model that is being proposed for onboarding an entrepreneur will lend credibility to the platform and will benefit the lakhs of entrepreneurs who are today in the lookout for a credible platform.

--Ravindran Ramiah

Apart from being involved in startups and seeing the efforts come to fruition, if I have to pick one key achievement, I would pick the project to implement a fully digital lending platform in this region. It was driven by a crazy set of people with a clear goal of facilitating the end customer with an easy and viable process.

--Ravindran Ramiah

Ability to breakdown mountains to pebbles De-clutter - Keep it simple

--Ravindran Ramiah

I would be involved in sharing my knowledge and experience with people who are eager to make a difference in the banking and financial sector.

--Ravindran Ramiah