By
Rabindra Kishen Hazari Jr.
Some of Dad’s (the late R.K. Hazari) most exciting work, which we closely witnessed as kids, was the spread of modern banking which in 1969, was largely confined to the metropolitan cities, that too mostly upper middle class and middle class strata, opening bank branches in the “mofussil”, spreading branch networks all over India and especially in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Jammu and Kashmir, entire North East, where a bank branch was a rarity.
Branch expansion increased three-fold from 8,187 branches in 1969 to 26,921 branches when Dad demitted office in end 1977 (appointed Deputy Governor on November 27, 1969 at 37 years of age), which was accompanied by pioneering developments in credit risk analysis and practically re-writing banking for not only small and medium enterprises but also for artisans, self employed, semi rural and rural lending.
R K Hazari with Staff and Trainee Officers, RBI Staff College, Chennai
Bankers’ training colleges were opened or given new impetus all over India where Dad devised the curriculum, appointed faculty and taught himself, always ex tempo, without notes, as was his style, with many historical references.
Inauguration of the Southern India Banks Staff Training College (SIBSTC), October 25, 1972
Dad would hand pick young officers who were getting disillusioned and oppressed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) hierarchy and appointed them to head failing or failed banks which had to be revived. He also hand-picked officers for posting to his favourite region, North East (NE) India, India’s Siberia, where those who have massively screwed up in the Rest of India are traditionally dumped.
NE was a punishment posting which he tried to change by promising carefully selected officers, (mostly non-veg who enjoyed their meat and drinks), with foreign trips and home postings after serving in Kohima, Imphal, Aizawl, even Gauhati, all of which were mostly abhorred. Shillong was usually mistaken for Ceylon.
Accompanying R K Hazari on his Official Tours to the Hinterland
The Industry Minister of Meghalaya (in my presence on a NE trip in 1975), asked Dad and his RBI entourage, “What is Reserve Bank?” Whether Dad had paid his respects to “your senior here in Shillong”, meaning thereby the State Bank of India (SBI) Branch Manager whom the Industry Minister treated like a God. My father was amused but his RBI entourage was livid. Dad’s furious colleague after failing to convince the Industry Minister that RBI was superior to SBI, ultimately pulled out a currency note and showed that the note is issued by the Reserve Bank of India. It was an Eureka moment! The cloud of uncertainty cleared from the Industry Minister’s brow, the Sun came out from behind the clouds, and he beamingly took Dad’s arm exclaiming, “Why didn’t you tell me that you issue the money, we need lots of money..” and began his sales pitch for moolah thereby providing solace to the RBI team who were hearing prayers to which they are long accustomed to receiving.
