A discussion with Prof Gopal Rao, XIME.

It was two weeks back, in early Dec 07, that I sat for a meeting with the French students Carol and Priyanka Shah from the Euromed Business School in Marseilles, France and Prof Gopal Rao. It was just a few weeks since Prof Gopal Rao had joined in the faculty of Finance at Xavier Institute of Management and En'ship , Bangalore.

Prof Gopal Rao is a PR of Singapore and a citizen of India. He graduated from IIM Bangalore in 1975-77 and has been working in different capacities in Singapore and US. His global reach is evident from the fact that he talks so flawlessly regarding international finance. His knowledge of the global financial system was simply marvelous. The way he talked of the US dollar and Euro significance, the financial system of the world which was going through one crisis to the next was interesting. How Japan made use of it's foreign exchange reserves to buy part of US and what China has started doing and what India should also be doing, was everything new to me. The discussion on the sub prime crisis in the US and it's impact of the housing system in US was very thought provoking. The comments on the French and European colonial mindset got me thinking read deep.

I enjoyed every minute of the talk and am thankful to Prof Rao for opening me to the exciting world of global finance, now that India has started playing an important role in the global economy.

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