Kotak Presidium: Bernanke to address India Inc captains

Ben Shalom Bernanke, the past two-term chairman of the US Federal Reserve, will on Tuesday address key regulators and corporate leaders here.

Bernanke is the chief guest at the second edition of Kotak Presidium, a thought leadership series being organised by Kotak Mahindra Bank.

This is Bernanke's second visit to the city.

According to Kotak Bank sources, the invitees to the Tuesday evening gathering at the NCPA include Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan and his deputies, Sebi chief U K Sinha and Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority(Irda) chief T S Vijayan, apart from industrialists Cyrus Mistry, the Ambani brothers, Deepak Parekh, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Adi Godrej and leading bankers. However, Rajan's presence is unlikely as he is away in Washington.

Bernanke, an economist of repute, is likely to share his experience at the Fed during one of its worst periods.

Bernanke, the two-term Fed chief from 2006 to January 2014, who replaced Alan Greenspan, is an alumnus of Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one of the most influential figures in American economic policy today.

During the 2008 meltdown, Bernanke worked to stabilise the banking sector through three rounds of quantitative easing.

As the Fed chairman, he helped guide monetary policy during the worst crisis of the American economy since the Great Depression and extended hundreds of billions in federal loans to AIG, Citigroup and General Motors, among others, to help them remain afloat.

In February 2010, he was nominated for a second term by the Obama administration. Soon he found himself under scrutiny for his actions before the 2008 financial crisis.

The first edition of the Kotak Presidium - a forum for global leaders and the country's business elite to share their experiences - was addressed by former US president Bill Clinton last April.