All services, all banking services. So that's really how we sort of started our journey over the last 14-15 years. We have sort of built a tech platform, build the network. And that's a brief about me. So primarily a software engineer and then sort of coincidentally got to start an organization.
Tell us about your background and journey.
I did my engineering computer science engineering from Karnataka University and then joined a company called Citicorp Information Technology, which changes its name to IFlex Solutions, which later was acquired by Oracle in 2005 or six. So I spent my entire carrier as a software engineer in IFlex Solutions, developing what is called core banking systems and their analytical engines for various different banks.
So that's really where I spent the first 13 years of my life. Then post-IFlex started an organization called Accurate Technologies, which primarily was started with the purpose of providing last-mile banking services.
So basically everything that you and I can do when we walk into an MG Road branch of a city bank or an HDFC bank, can we provide the same services to the customer 400 km away in his village in front of his house.
All services, all banking services. So that's really how we sort of started our journey over the last 14-15 years. We have sort of built a tech platform, build the network. And that's a brief about me. So primarily a software engineer and then sort of coincidentally got to start an organization.
What led you to reach the highest echelons in your career?
I don't know about the highest loans or what primarily just continue doing. Continue doing your work with all the energy, all the passion, all the dedication. I have been sort of born on Mahabharata stories and Ramayana stories and mythology stories. I'm a great believer in Krishna's advice to say that do the work and don't worry about the food kind of a thing. So I'm a great believer in that. And I've been sort of born on that belief. Hence, the only thing which I have kept doing is kept learning, kept doing my work, kept doing the learning, kept doing my work.
I don't think there is anything else which I have done wherever I reached. I think it's a combination of that and a huge amount of luck and being at the right place at the right time and a huge amount of serendipity and luck, which is sort of because lots and lots of people do a lot of hard work. It's just that somewhere people require various different luck and serendipity to sort of also aid that and that in my life, at least it has been a significant amount of luck.
What are some of the challenges that you face in your job and how can tech solve these problems?
So if you look at as humanity, we have sort of progressed a significant amount. So earlier, if you look at it, we did not have financial services or banking capabilities in the rural villages. Now we have sort of managed to provide them that and enable people to sort of have a bank account, enable them to do transactions, enable them to do savings, provide credit to them, which is a big-ticket issue in lots and lots of areas of places primarily has been the enabler or the core pillar behind that.
Because any service which you need to provide, I think, take place a fundamental role therein enabling that. Can you provide that service without that, it becomes far, far more difficult to provide it without a tech. So tech has enabled it in every different way and has been the core pillar behind that it's. So that's really how I see it.
What does the typical day look like? And how do you define success?
A typical day is talking to people, at least talking to people who are there as part of your organization, talking to a few customers, trying to see what more can we do, understanding customers issues, trying to see whether there's any other problem that you can sort of solve on, checking on people, if there is anything that we can do as an organization to sort of helping them and sort of figuring out where to go next, that's really what a typical day looks like, and obviously reading and figuring out various different aspects of business and life success.
Finally, at the end of the day, I define success as an ability to sleep peacefully at night and be able to do things that you can do. In my view, I think these are the two definitions of success that you should be able to sleep peacefully at night and be able to do things that you want to do. So I don't think that's my definition.
What do you think is the future of banking in the era of APIs?
In the future of banking is getting transformed in a big way. And I think we have not yet seen the, seen the entire, uh, book being opened, uh, because, because unlike a few years back where you, where you had to go to bank branches, now you no longer need to know, go to bank branches to do any, any, uh, banking, but, uh, uh, our financial transactions. So that has moved significantly.
But I think we have, we have not even seen the, I think we have far far away because if you look at, look at payments, we are sort of, we can do payments in any, any sort of, uh, at time of transaction itself. Uh, if you look at, uh, look at banking services itself, every single, uh, thing that you can do in a bank branch, now you can do it at the doorstep or on the, on the tip of your mobile phones, uh, and it is getting more and more embedded.
Uh, so, so for example, an ability for an Uber to do transactions is a result of APIs, the ability for you to sort of, say that do you want insurance to be done when you take an override again, is, is an API led thing. So hence every single thing, which is, which is there as part of the banking thing, will get transformed and be able to, able to be provided to a customer at various different moments of his life and that's really what an API would do.
And hence what you can imagine is, is the service can be provided. And that's really so how does it get, can get transformed is primarily left to the imagination of what we can provide.
I don't think anybody sorts of thought a few years back that I am taking an hour, one hour, 30 minutes ride on an all-hour Uber, can I ensure this for fiber piece? I don't think anybody thought about that. Why are you ensuring it saying that you know, if there is a traffic jam I get late, then, then, you know, so I, so it's, it's just left to the imagination that we can do.
And if you can sort of creating a problem statement for which a solution is there. API is significantly held because it's, available at that moment. And that's really how, where the transformative power will come as a result of the APIs that it can be provided at that moment itself. And it doesn't have to, and banks don't have to do that. That's the power banks don't have to dream about a solution. Anybody, you, me, anybody can sort of dream about a problem statement and a solution saying that we find a problem we can solve it. That's the power.
Same thing as what I just said finally this is not going to be done by banks. This is going to be done through an API layer, open banking kind of platforms, and the ability of either fintech or anybody who can sort of see a problem and want to provide a solution. So this is why this scale will happen because it is no longer restricted to 20, 30, 40, 50 banks.
It can be anybody who can sort of see a problem and, and dream a solution. And hence the scale is, is synonymous with that because now it can be anybody who can sort of creating a solution, and doesn't have to be a bank. If only a few institutions are doing it, then yes. Then you can't scale it, but now you find a problem. You can sort of create a solution and say that, okay, let put it.
And once you create a solution, there'll be another 10,000 people who will have the same problem and who will sort of buy into that solution. So that's powerful and that's really what will give the scale.
Favorite book, there are lots of them, but let me just sort of talk about two of them. One is a book called The Celestine Prophecy very powerful book in terms of what role energy plays in human life or, or in, on, in life in general and how we can sort of ensure that and how the patterns and energy and all of that sort of having my kind of a relationship and all of that.
So that's, that's very, very powerful and that's the core from a human life perspective. The second is called how will you measure your life by an extremely renowned imminent person called Clayton Christensen. An extremely interesting book on how life itself is and how success is and how will you finally, what does it mean to sort of lead a good life.
Prophetically, nice profound book. So these two are very close would, would call them favorites, if you want to call them.
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