Bandhan Bank

The Kolkata-based microlender made a stellar market debut in March. It is today the eighth largest bank in the country with a market cap of Rs 56,920 crore, more than 30 percent over its valuation at the time of listing. In the quarter ended September, Bandhan Bank’s net profit rose 47 percent, highlighting the quality of assets on its loan book. The bank was founded by Chandrashekhar Ghosh, who is its CEO and MD. To its credit, Bandhan Bank has not deviated from its stated mission of financial inclusion, with 87 percent of micro loans on its balance sheet.

Motilal Oswal Financial Services

The company was founded in 1987 as a small sub-broking unit by two visionaries Motilal Oswal and Raamdeo Agarawal. It has diversified to offer a range of financial products and services such as private wealth management, retail broking and currency broking. Motilal ended FY18 with its highest-ever revenue and profit of Rs 2770 crore and Rs 562 crore respectively.

HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company

HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company | HDFC Life, a subsidiary of HDFC was set up in 2001 and was one of the first private life insurers to enter the market. The third life insurance company to be listed on the stock exchanges, HDFC Life closed at a whopping 19 percent premium on the NSE when it debuted in November 2017. The insurer ended FY18 as the largest life insurer (by first year premium) and collected Rs 11,349.13 crore of new premiums. The Rs 8,695-crore public issue of HDFC Life was oversubscribed 4.90 times at the time of listing.

Bajaj Finance Limited

Bajaj Finance Ltd, a subsidiary of Bajaj Finserv, is one of the fastest growing NBFCs dealing in Consumer Finance, SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) and Commercial Lending, and Wealth Management. Founded by Rahul Bajaj in 1987, the Pune-headquartered NBFC is now led by Managing Director Rajeev Jain. In Q2 FY19, its consolidated net profit grew 54 percent to Rs 923 crore. Its assets under management grew 52 times over the last 12 years.

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance

ICICI Prudential Life, a joint venture between ICICI Bank and Prudential Corporation Holdings, began operations in 2001. The insurer has consistently been among the top three private life insurers since its inception. ICICI PruLife was the first insurer to be listed on Indian stock exchanges. In FY18, the insurer collected first year premiums of Rs 9,118 crore. With a market share of 15.4 percent, it was the third-largest insurer in FY18 (by first year premium).

ICICI Lombard General Insurance

The insurer, a subsidiary of ICICI Bank, was set up in 2001. The first general insurance company to get listed on the Indian stock exchanges, ICICI Lombard is the largest private sector general insurer. In FY18, the insurer collected Rs 12,357 crore of gross premium. With a market share of 8.2 percent in FY18, it was the largest insurer among private sector peers (by premium). In October 2018, it zoomed past PSUs to become the second largest general insurer.

L&T Midcap Fund

L&T Midcap Fund has consistently outperformed in recent years, ranking among the top performers in its category over three and five-year time frames. It takes a risk-conscious approach and runs a highly diversified portfolio, limiting exposure to individual bets. With a superior risk-return profile compared to most of its peers, this fund has emerged a worthy pick in the mid-cap category.

Axis Bluechip Fund

This fund has a reputation of favouring companies with improving cash flows and higher earnings visibility. The fund manager is comfortable taking large positions in some high-conviction bets with the aim of delivering greater returns. The fund is adept at containing the downside better than its peers. This has held it in good stead in the long term and the fund has proved to a dependable offering in the large-cap category.

Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund

Formed in 1994, Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund is a joint venture between the Aditya Birla Group and the Sun Life Financial Inc. of Canada. The fund house offers sector-specific equity schemes, fund of fund schemes, hybrid and monthly income funds, debt and treasury products, and offshore funds. In the last three years, the fund house has increased its penetration into smaller cities and has been in the top AUM quartile consistently for the past 3 years.

Lendingkart Technologies

As a banker Harshvardhan Lunia was intrigued by the question of why small business owners, who in spite of being credit worthy, were not served by existing lenders. Lunia co-founded Lendingkart Technologies with Mukul Sachan. The venture is revolutionizing the way small businesses access credit. The company uses technology and analytics tools, analyzing thousands of data points from various data sources to assess the creditworthiness of small businesses, rapidly and accurately. Now an SME can get a loan within 3 days. Lendingkart has helped over 12,500 small companies across 950 cities in getting loans and expanding their businesses.

Aavishkar

Founded in 2001, the venture fund backs entrepreneurs in pockets in India that are underserved by financial institutions. By providing access to capital, Aavishkar helps them build sustainable and scalable enterprises. Over the last decade, Aavishkar has established a successful track record with over $155 million under management and a diverse portfolio of high impact businesses at various levels of growth. It has set itself the goal of investing in 300 startups in the next 10 years, coming to the aid of entrepreneurial talent in low income countries. Aavishkar aims to raise $1 billion in the coming decade.

IndusInd Bank

Sobti is a career banker with 43 years of experience across 3 sectors of banking – public, foreign and private. He took over as MD & CEO of IndusInd Bank in February 2008. Prior to his stint with IndusInd, he was the Executive Vice President and Country Executive, India and Head, UAE and Sub-Continent, at ABN AMRO Bank N.V. He joined the bank in November 1990 as a chief manager and graduated to the Country Executive over a period of 18 years. In his banking career, Sobti has been associated with ANZ Grindlays Bank (now Standard Chartered Bank) and country’s biggest lender State Bank of India. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree (Honours) in Electrical Engineering and a Diploma in Corporate Laws and Secretarial Practice.