An independent director on a bank (she will also be reading this) once suggested during a break that I write a book for bank directors. I thought she was trying to humour me and did not take it seriously. Of late, I have been giving more thought to it. What I have below is a tentative first step, an overview of my corporate governance experience, and a few lessons that I picked up down the road.
Errata
It is embarrassing to admit to four errors in one post. I keep revisiting my earlier posts to re-edit and recheck facts. In the process, I noticed that I had made three errors in the last post, and one in an earlier post.
a. The name of G.N. Joshi, author of “Down Melody Lane,” was given as G.R. Joshi (I had a boss by that name). Govindrao Joshi was with HMV for over three decades. He oversaw the rise of the recording industry in India at an interesting period. Both Hindustani and Carnatic music could boast of at least around 20 stalwarts each representing different musical traditions, styles, gharanas, and instruments. He commissioned a young Bhimsen Joshi in 1944 for his first record. His account covers the velvety voiced K.L. Saigal to the mercurial Kesarbai Kerkar. With interesting chapters on Morarji Desai and Yehudi Menuhin thrown in. A delectable read.
b. I wrongly mentioned David Ricardo as the first Professor of Political Economy. I was writing from memory of reading Todd D. Buccholz’s delightfully humorous New Ideas from Dead Economists (1989). Though I had a niggling doubt that I was wrong, I did not recheck as the post was on Indian Presidents. According to Buccholz, Thomas Malthus was the first professor of Political Economy in England. In 1805, Malthus left the Jesus College to join the Haileybury College, a training school for East India Company. He was a Professor of History and Politics among other related subjects.
c. In my post on Who Will be the next President, I mentioned that only five Vice Presidents had become Presidents. I overlooked a sixth, K.R. Narayanan. While correcting this, I also further expanded on Prasad-Nehru relations to make the anecdotes more complete. A more detailed post in due course. My sincere thanks to two former senior officials of the Parliament secretariat for their profuse words of appreciation for the post.
d. In the answers to RBI Quiz, I mentioned that before his appointment as Governor, Rama Rau’s consent was taken for the arrangement where he would be reporting to Deshmukh, many years junior in the ICS. This is incorrect as C.D. Deshmukh became Finance Minister about ten months after laying down office as Governor. The consent was taken either before the appointment as he would be succeeding someone far junior and would be his understudy for a short time, or at a later point, to ascertain whether he was comfortable reporting to Deshmukh. I am writing from memory and will get back with a clearer picture when I write on Rama Rau.