Profile of Board of Directors

Dr. Ram Krishna Garg, PhD.
Independent Director

Dr. Ram Krishna Garg, PhD. Superannuated as Chief General Manager (Risk Management), from State Bank of India, in April 2013, after heading the Bank’s North East Operations for two years. He has vast experience in setting up New Companies for State Bank, resolving Stressed Assets for the Bank, managing High Value Industrial credit, Heading the Bank’s Risk Management function, heading challenging banking operations not only in India but also abroad with responsibilities over Retail Banking including SME, Agri, HR, and International Banking. He has also been associated with several companies, while in service and after retirement as well.
Dr . Garg is an Honours Graduate in Physics, with a Management Post Graduate degree from Banaras Hindu University. While he is a Certified Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers, he was awarded Doctorate by Gauhati University, for his thesis on “A study of Enterprises based in North Eastern states, based on their credit rating “in April 2015. He has undergone several professional development programmes in Top ranking Indian and International Management Institutes

Mr. Rajan Bajaj
Nominee Director

Mr. Rajan Bajaj is the Founder and CEO of Slice, India’s leading consumer payments and lending company since 2016. An alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, Rajan’s vision is to redesign and create a transformative and seamless financial experience for today's generation, who hold immense promise for the future. Today, slice boasts an impressive user base of over 14 million registered individuals nationwide, with an average age of 27, solidifying its position as one of the country's leading payments start-ups. Guiding a strong and relentless team of 1000+, Rajan has spearheaded the fintech unicorn over the last 7 years, enabling seamless bill payments, lending services, expense management, and exciting rewards. Rajan’s bullishness on the Indian fintech landscape led him to create and deliver products at par with some of the best global consumer payments solutions. Prior to founding slice, Rajan made significant contributions to Flipkart's product team, working in their marketplace team during its early stages. This segment quickly became the fastest-growing business unit and a key focus for Flipkart. Rajan's audacious goals and plans are to leverage today’s evolving technology and get the opportunity to create a “customer experience obsessed”, AI and digital first bank.

Dr. Gautam Barua
Independent Director

Gautam Barua is currently the Director of Indian Institute of Information Technology  Guwahati and Professor of Computer Science and Engineering. He was the Director IIT Guwahati from 2003 till 2013 and is currently on deputation from there. He was also the officiating Director of NIT Silchar during 2003-2005, and the Mentor Director of IIT Patna in 2008-09. He was at IIT Kanpur from 1982 till 1995.  He graduated from  IIT Bombay with  B.Tech and M.Tech  degrees in Electrical Engineering. He obtained a  PhD degree in Computer Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA in 1981. His areas of interest are Operating Systems and Networks.  He is an IT consultant to the Govt. of Assam and to a number of public enterprises.

Ms. Manjula Saikia Bhuyan, IAS (Retd.)
Independent Director

Ms. Manjula Saikia Bhuyan is a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) from SV Regional College, Surat (NIT) and has 36 years of experience in the field of Industrial Sector particularly in agriculture & rural economy, Small Scale industry.
As an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer she worked various vital position as Joint Secretary, Industries & Commerce, Additional Secretary, Industries & Commerce Deptt and retired as Secretary, Industries & Commerce and Transport Deptt.

Ms. Smriti Chandra
Nominee Director

Ms. Chandra runs NMI’s Indian office. Prior to joining NMI, she was a co-founder of a boutique Investment Banking outfit – First League Ventures – based out of New Delhi, India for 3 years, focused on supporting start-up companies in M&A and raising seed to Series A venture capital funds across technology and consumer sectors. Previously, Ms. Chandra also worked at EY for 10 years where she served clients in multiple sectors with a focus on transaction advisory services, including investment banking (M&A and private equity fund raising), financial due diligence and bid advisory services. She has also worked with KPMG in their transfer pricing division. Ms. Chandra is a qualified Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and a Commerce graduate from Bangalore University. She has been associated with NESFB since 20.04.2021

Mr. Tapan Kumar Hazarika
Independent Director

Mr. Tapan Kr Hazarika has wide experience of Agri-Banking sector having worked with NABARD and retired as Chief General Manager. He has a Master’s Degree in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi.
During his stint with NABARD, he was looking after Corporate Planning, Business Strategy & Development, Rural Credits and monitoring of promotional programmes. He was instrumental in drafting, finalizing (and coordinating with DFS, MoF) various budget proposals relating to promotion of rural credit/ development for incorporation in the (Annual)Union Budget of GoI.
He played a key role as member in various Corporate Level Committees viz. Management Committee, Investment Committee, ALCO etc. besides being member in the Board of Supervision (BoS) for State Co-operative Banks (StCBs), District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) and Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) responsible for providing directions and guidance on matters related to supervision and inspection and review of inspection findings of these banks and suggesting appropriate measures.

Mr. Pradeep Kumar Nath
Nominee Director

Mr. Pradeep Kumar Nath is an Economist and Development Banker engaged in financing and developing industries in India. He has experience of working over 25 years in all geographical regions of India in the field of project finance, receivable finance, micro finance, infrastructure project finance, equity finance, risk management, internal audit and compliance, refinance to NBFCs/MFIs/Banks, stressed assets & NPA management in a regulated ecosystem. He was instrumental in computerising Government Incentive Schemes and formulating policies and lending norms for MFIs/NBFCs from SIDBI, HO, Lucknow. He was a Member of Working Group for preparation of Revised Code of Conduct for Microfinance Industry towards responsible lending. He was also Director in the Board of NBFC-MFI and State Industrial Development Corporation. He is a Resource Person of Asian Development Bank, Manila, RBI and IIMs,
At present he is working as Deputy General Manager, SIDBI Guwahati office and Director in the Board of Assam Financial Corporation.

Mr. SHRIMOHAN YADAV
Independent Director

Mr. Shrimohan Yadav is an Advisor in the Financial Services space with an experience of 29 years in Reserve Bank of India, wherein he worked in diverse areas including Supervision, Regulation, Rural Development, Financial Inclusion, Human Resources Management, etc.
As Chief General Manager of Department of Regulation for 5 years, he headed divisions handling matters relating to ownership and licensing of private sector banks (Universal Banks/ Small Finance Banks/ Payments Banks); acquisitions in banks/NBFCs/HFCs/ARCs; amalgamation and restructuring of banks under stress; merger of NBFCs with private sector banks; and governance related issues (including executive compensation practices, constitution of board and board committees) in banks and NBFCs. He spearheaded the discussions with Government of India on privatization/divestment of public sector banks.
He was the lead manager and key contributor of ‘Internal Working Group to Review Extant Ownership Guidelines and Corporate Structure for Indian Private Sector Banks’ (2020) and ‘Discussion Paper on Governance in Banks’ (2020), instructions on governance in banks (2021). He was member of ‘Compensation Monitoring Contact Group’ of the Financial Stability Board, Basel, Switzerland. He was also a member of an Expert Committee set up by Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI). He is also member of Insurance Advisory Committee, set up by IRDAI
Prior to joining RBI, he worked with a large Public Sector Bank for 7 years and gained experience in credit and financing. He is also an MBA and CAIIB (Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers).