With climate change and global warming being hotly discussed and debated at global political and economic forums, two prominent Indian institutions viz. Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) discussed the topic of climate finance.
The IIM Lucknow’s Centre for Business Sustainability (CBS) and the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) convened a roundtable discussion on the theme here yesterday.
The roundtable aimed to facilitate in-depth discussions on climate-related issues encountered by Indian financial institutions, and brought together stakeholders from different sectors under one roof.
Attendees included representatives from banks such as State Bank of India, Axis Bank, and Federal Bank; non-banking financial companies like Tata Capital; global advisory firms like Dalberg Advisors and Auctus ESG; think tanks like Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) and the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW); Indian Credit Rating Agency (ICRA); global consulting firms like MicroSave and Taru Consulting; multilateral development institutions like the International Finance Corporation (IFC); the Oxford Sustainable Finance Initiative at the University of Oxford etc.
Discussions focused on assessing the readiness of Indian financial institutions to address the impact of climate change and exploring strategies to leverage technology in navigating the resultant challenges.
Rajesh Bansal, RBIH CEO, illustrated its contribution to the development of interventions for addressing climate-related challenges faced by financial institutions and consumers.
Prof Vikas Srivastava, Dean Programmes, IIM Lucknow, emphasised the critical role of financial institutions in internalising concerns for climate change from both mitigation and adaptation perspectives.
Ranjeet Rane, Program Coordinator at RBIH, highlighted the role of unlocking data in climate risk assessment and illustrated the role of technology using blockchain technology as an example of understanding the verification claims of sustainability in the financial service industry.
Prof Kaushik Ranjan Bandyopadhyay, Chairperson, Centre for Business Sustainability at IIM Lucknow, emphasised the timeliness of the roundtable amidst another record year of global warming in 2023.
IIM Lucknow, established in 1984, is the fourth in the prestigious IIM family of management schools to be set up after IIM Calcutta, IIM Ahmedabad, and IIM Bangalore.
In 2005, IIM Lucknow expanded the realm of management education by becoming the first IIM to set up a satellite campus exclusively for Executive Education at NOIDA in Delhi-NCR region.
IIM Lucknow is accredited by AACSB and AMBA while its EQUIS Accreditation is ongoing. The institute features in the prestigious FT -100 Top Global Business schools for both the 2-year Flagship PGP program and One-year IPMX Program.
It is consistently ranked amongst top business schools in the NIRF Rankings. IIM Lucknow was the first IIM to start a 2-year full time MBA program in Sustainable Management 8 years back. It also has a long-standing full-time MBA program in Agri Business Management.