Bandhan Bank: Building a robust, granular liabilities franchise

On the occasion of its 6th Foundation Day celebrated on 23rd August, Chandra Shekhar Ghosh analyses the bank’s achievements and explains how it has earned the trust and confidence of 23 million Indians:

- Navin Surya

Chandra Shekhar Ghosh is a firm believer of the philosophy that ‘Small is beautiful, but big is necessary’

Bandhan’s visionary founder Chandra Shekhar Ghosh (62) is a pioneer in the field of development finance. After completing his masters degree in Statistics from Dhaka University, Ghosh joined the developmental sector by taking up employment with BRAC, a Bangladeshbased NGO, which is one of the largest in the world. He eventually came back to India and joined a West Bengal-based NGO called ‘Village Welfare Society’ as program head. In this role, Ghosh would need to travel deep into the hinterlands of West Bengal and meet economically underprivileged people from far-flung rural areas to educate them on how to improve their living conditions.

On one such visit, he met a woman residing in a mud-house, who was cooking, even as he was trying to talk to her. Ghosh tried to educate her about the benefits of health, hygiene and education, but she seemed uninterested in what he had to share. After a while, he was intrigued to ask her why she wasn’t paying attention. Even as she kept cooking, she told him that her daughter had been craving some fish curry and rice for the past few days, which she couldn’t provide as she didn’t have the money. All that she could think of at that moment was what new excuse to offer for failing to fulfil her wish yet again.