Competitiveness Is The Key To Our Future

Uday Kotak on protectionism, Donald Trump, private capex, Indian fintechs, scams and scandals

- Gopika Gopakumar & Satish John

Most successful businessmen don't retire. They continue to build and help other companies. But few reflect upon what it takes to build a great nation. Uday Kotak belongs to that minority.

Kotak, who is now 65, stepped down as the managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank a year ago. In a career spanning nearly four decades, Kotak managed to build a financial conglomerate with total assets worth ₹6.2 trillion, spanning across banking, mutual funds, insurance, stock broking, car finance, investment banking, private equity (PE), and alternative assets.

Since retiring as a full-time banker, Kotak is now enjoying his new-found freedom at the helm of his family office USK (Uday Suresh Kotak) Capital. Seated on the 10th floor at Godrej BKC, Mumbai, Kotak is busy managing his family money by investing in businesses with long-term potential and also mentoring the next generation of business leaders.

"I am not busy at all. I am quite relaxed," he quips as he sits down for a 90-minute-long conversation with us, on a day which is otherwise packed with meetings.

While he avoids all questions on banking, since he is currently serving as the non-executive director on the bank's board, Kotak is all eager to share his views on privatization, getting animal spirits back into the economy, risk of over-regulation and Starlink's entry into the Indian telecom sector.

In this exclusive interview with Mint, Kotak reveals his dream of seeing India as the second most powerful nation in the world during his lifetime.

You were one of those who could see the global financial crisis coming before it came. Do you have such apprehensions now?