Who is Tamal Bandyopadhyay ?

• 1 February 2018 | 1896 Views | By Mint2Save

In the field of banking and finance, Tamal Bandyopadhyay has established himself as a benchmark of analysis. His opinion, thoughts, ideas about Indian and global banking system have regarded by the new generation as well as the veterans of the field. His books are recommended for every newbie into the banking and finance system. His newspaper columns and LinkedIn feeds are one of the highest read columns in his field.

In this article, we are going to explore of this gentleman (Tamal Bandyopadhyay) as we seek his work, career and books authored.

Gone are the times when the newspaper was the only source of information about the world for the people. People used to eagerly wait for their copy of newspaper to know about the happenings in the world. It was almost like a morning ritual for people!!

With the advancement of technology and media in today’s times, we have access to any piece of information or incident occurring across the world. With the advancement of media, we can access all sorts of information, at any time, which can be through television or print media or by simply accessing the internet over our smartphones and technology. We need any piece of information; we are just a click away.

But the responsibility of providing us with information, in best possible phrases still lies with the journalists across the world, who frame the incident in their words or provide us with their opinions on critical factors that are prevalent in our economy. India too like many other countries has nurtured many eminent journalists and undoubtedly of the biggest names in the Indian business journalism includes the name of Mr Tamal Bandyopadhyay.

His Career

Tamal Bandyopadhyay, is widely known name amongst bankers, economists and policymakers, for his immense contributions both as a business journalist and an author. Born on 18 March 1961 in West Bengal India, Mr. Tamal started his career after completing his post graduation from Calcutta University as journalist trainee with The Times of India group, in Mumbai in 1985. After which he worked with three leading national financial dailies, which included The Economic Times, Financial Express and Business Standard.

He, then played a key role as a member of the team that started Mint in February 2007, an Indian business daily brought out by HT Media Ltd and since then associated with Mint, India’s second largest read business daily, where he is popular for his weekly column on banking and finance called Banker’s Trust which is published every Monday. His frequent blog Banker’s Trust Real Time on livemint.com evaluates key developments in the fiscal sector. Since August 2014, he is also associated with Bandhan Bank Ltd as an adviser.

Mr Tamal has been associated with the financial sector for nearly two decades now and has had an unimpeded view of the enormous changes in Indian finance over this period. He is also an eminent speaker at various seminars across India and overseas concerning the financial sector.

Tamal as an Author

Mr Tamal is also a profound author and has written four books till now, the first one being A Bank for the Buck, launched in November 2012. As an author, he narrates the untold stories from corporate and finance world. His books have been non-frictional best-sellers.

It is a story about the new bank movement and about the success of India’s most valued bank – HDFC Bank Ltd. The Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram released this publication in Mumbai and on its launch said, “In a period of great financial illiteracy, it’s refreshing to have a book written by somebody very literate about matters relating to finance.”

His next publication was “Sahara: The Untold Story”, launched in June 2014. Well, this book caught everyone’s eye as this book was about all the controversies related with “Sahara India Pariwar” and Mr Subrata Roy. This book answered all the questions that were revolving around everyone’s mind about the Sahara controversy.

This book was further involved in a controversy in December 2013, when the Sahara India Pariwar filed a Rs.2 billion defamation suit against the author and the publisher- Jaico Publishing House in Calcutta High Court. Ultimately in April 2014, both the parties reached an out of court settlement following which the book carries a disclaimer by Sahara which says the corporation does not agree with the writer on the content of the book and his treatment.

His third book is titled Bandhan: The Making of a Bank, which is the bank he is currently working in as an advisor. This is the story of entrepreneurship; it’s a story about India’s largest microfinance company and its transformation into a universal bank. It also talks about the founder of Bandhan Bank, Mr Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, whose vision led to the creation of microfinance company into a bank. The publisher Penguin Random House India released this book in June 2016.

His latest book is about the massive economic step taken by the government of India to curb black money, which took everyone by shook and is a step which cannot be forgotten by all who witnessed it. Yes, you are guessing it right, it’s about Demonetization. So, his latest book is titled From Lehman to Demonetization, A Decade of Disruptions, Reforms and Misadventures. It is said to be a must read for all students studying finance.

Association with HDFC Bank

So far, Tamal has documented HDFC in a very eerie manner, in his two books, A Bank for the Buck, and HDFC 2.0. 

It is evident that HDFC bank’s success story and dynamic nature of adaptability has caught the eye of this writer, whose result are these must read books.

A Bank for the Buck, the former of the two, details with the origin of HDFC Bank, against the backdrop of banking revolution that started. It explicitly details about the hurdles, thresholds, team building, growth, struggles, combined with emotions and hard work. The result is a simple, exhaustive and inspiring book about journey of one of the most valued banks.

Continuing the revolution that HDFC has began, Tamal intends to reveal more about the Bank in his book HDFC 2.0. This book reveals about how HDFC bank has self imposed a digital disruption and fintech, to evolve as an unparalleled force in providing world class financial experience to its clients / customers.

Other Contributions

• Mr. Tamal has also contributed to The Oxford Companion to Economics in India, edited by Kaushik Basu and published by Oxford University Press in 2007. This is said to be the very first comprehensive and extensive compendium of short essays of its kind, covering a vast range of topics related to the contemporary Indian economy.
• He has also published a book of poems in Bengali titled Anupam Meenrashi in January 2014.
• Between April and November 2011, he also ran a series of  32 episode on Bloomberg India TV, called Banker’s Trust, where he interviewed many senior central bankers, commercial bankers, and economists every week.

Other accolades

The famous professional website LinkedIn had nominated Tamal Bandyopadhyay for three successive years (2015, 2016 and 2017) as one of the top voices in finance. He is also a recipient of Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award for his commentary and interpretative writings for the year 2016.