"When you're lending, you have to be very conscious of risk"

V. Vaidyanathan, MD & CEO of IDFC First Bank, on how the perception about making money has changed in India, Digital India, and more

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For V. Vaidyanathan, MD & CEO of IDFC First Bank, India is a good place to be. The financial services veteran, who started out as a banker, then turned entrepreneur, and now leads the bank formed as a result of the merger between his NBFC Capital First and IDFC Bank, tells the audience at the BT500 Wealth Creators Summit that like the American Dream, soon there will be an Indian Dream. In a chat with Business Today’s Sourav Majumdar, he talks about infra financing, MSMEs, and the need for more banks. Edited excerpts:

Q: Tell us about the economy when you were starting off as a banker, and the changes you see as an entrepreneur banker right now?

A: If you go back a little in time, the villains of Indian movies in the ’90s,’80s, etc… Pran, Prem Chopra, Danny [Denzongpa]… were all businessmen… Now, nobody portrays businesspeople as [villains]. Now, entrepreneurship is accepted… it is seen as a source of employment creation—at least in the way the government speaks these days… people recognise that they pay taxes and they grow the economy. So, there has been a massive shift of the lens through which we see entrepreneurship in a positive way. It is the biggest thing that has happened in the past few years.

Q: Earlier, people used to frown upon people who used to make money…