0.25% rate cut is expected in RBI's monetary policy: Kalpana Morparia, JP Morgan

The corporate rate tax cut is a welcome move and its timing was brilliant, says Kalpana Morparia, Chairperson - South and Southeast Asia, JP Morgan & Co. During an interview with Swati Khandelwal, Zee Business, Morparia said, "Ongoing crisis arose due to chunky corporate exposures but have been addressed significantly. Edited Excerpts:

Q: Which form of Maa Durga inspires you the most?
A: Symbols of knowledge, wealth and mercy emerges in front of me when I think about the Goddesses, may she be Durga, or Saraswati or Laxmi. I fast during the Navratri's and go to Maa Durga's temple every day to pray.

Q: Name the qualities that women should have to emerge as a good leader?
A: Maybe, the person is a male or a female, but he/she should analyse the purpose of his/her life before starting anything. I started my career with ICICI when it was a big financial institution, created to finance the industry in India. Changing the purpose into a goal, not only helped the institution to grow itself but it also helped me in growing my career. After this, I joined JP Morgan, the world's largest bank, and it has been 11 years here. And, we are working with a purpose to showcase Indian business opportunities to the world and provide our global product platforms to Indian companies and banks. I think the bank's purpose will help me in growing and simultaneously will also allow my company to serve its clients.

Q: Banking sector plays an important role in the growth of the Indian economy. What is your view on India's financial sector especially the banks, which is under a stress, and the challenges that it may face till we see a turnaround?
A: The large part of the problem that arose due to the chunky corporate exposures have been significantly addressed or are in the process of being addressed through the IBC. The ongoing stress is mainly available in the real estate and non-banking finance sector (NBFC) but its quantum has decreased and dispersed a lot. That's why I don't consider them a systematic issue. Besides, the government has announced several things on this front and we are also expecting a quarter per cent cut coming from the reserve bank of India in its monetary policy committee (MPC) announcement. All this will augur well in terms of giving a growth impetus.

Q: What is your say on the latest Corporate tax cut, is it enough to bring revival in the Indian Economy especially revival in consumption? 
A: I think, the announcement on the reduction of corporate rate tax was a very welcome move and the suite and timing were brilliant. This brings India at par with all other Asian countries, so, I think it is going to have an enormous medium and long term impact in terms of driving investment. A lot of things have been announced by the government. Now, it is the responsibility of our corporate houses to find the ways to reap benefits of the policy announcement and reduced tax cut and increase their investment and create a momentum of growth, not just in terms of investment but also in terms of jobs.

Q: Do you feel we have fewer women faces at the top of the organization, if yes, let us know the ways to address this problem?
A: SEBI has framed a rule and Companies Act has a rule as well that you must have at least one women independent director. I think we should make companies aware in both terms, employment and representation at the board level, and there is a need to make them not only about the benefits of inclusion of the gender but also the disadvantage of keeping out such a significant contributor whether it is a workplace or the board rooms.

Q: What are your views on our growth rate and by when we will get out of the problems? 
A: India has a vision of being a $5 trillion economy and that can be achieved by keeping our GDP growth at more than 8%. But, we grew by just 5% in the last quarter, however, the recent announcements have an impetus to growth. So, the consumption holding up and good monsoon should revive consumption in rural areas. And, both the government and the corporate are embarking on a really strong pipeline of investments and based on this, certainly, India will get to its 8% aspiration of growth.

Q: Do you think that the corporate world is reluctant while investing more? What is your view on global uncertainty impact on Indian economy?
A: Certainly, we are better because we have a 1.3 billion home market to address but any country that aspires to grow at more than 8% has to be a very significant exporter of the goods. India has done very well in terms of export of services. I believe if the current policy announcements, ease of doing business and the tax cut should all support a lot of supply chain coming to India. There will be a significant disruption in the supply chain from one of the countries that have a disproportionate share of the supply chain. So, as India positions itself as a destination of choice to get some of these manufacturing supply chains in its own country. It will certainly benefit our export sector and you have a huge benefit of also servicing the domestic segment.

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Q: Would you like to provide any success mantra/formula that you would like to give our young, budding and inspirational women who look at you as an ideal and want to position themselves as you have done till date?
A: It is very difficult to choose any one mantra for success but if I have to speak about just one then I will go for, "you must have a passion to win".