DK Kapila The Oracle

  Scaling Self-Help Group Enterprises: Socio-Economic, Financial, and Market Barriers (Published in The Business Sandesh 01 November 2025) By Dinesh K Kapila. CGM (Retd) NABARD .   “Our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class.” In this quote, Plato asserts that the primary goal in forming a  just state  is to ensure the  overall well-being  and  happiness  of the entire society. This is essential to absorb when we discuss the empowerment of SHGs.   The transition of members of Self-Help Groups (SHGs) from participation in savings and micro-livelihood activities to becoming resilient, scalable entrepreneurs represents a critical step for inclusive economic growth and poverty alleviation. This is the next frontier, the next challenge.   My recent interactions with the SACC India StartUp Accelerator Chamber of Commerce for their Udaan Programme, a programme that ass...

  Cooperative Banks - Rural – Operational Excellence and Leadership  By                   Dinesh K Kapila, CGM (Retd) NABARD (written for the HPSTCB, For their souvenir, National Cooperative Conference, Sept 2025).  Maintaining a viable market share with a sustainable profitable profile has been a challenge for   rural cooperative banks (RCBs). Committees have repeatedly stressed the subject of revival and operational viability in coop banks, through recommendations for regulatory changes, financial re-engineering, digitization and computerization, the SSE for digitized services with improved   credit underwriting standards, fintech collaborations, etc.         These are well conceived initiatives and policy decisions. However the actualization in terms of results is often not as envisaged. Can such initiatives drive the growth of business on ...

A Lovers Tiff and Karvachauth and All That ! Dinesh K Kapila   Surya was siting quietly. Reading his newspaper. Sipping tea from a giant mug and watching his wife Annie. Admiring her with  quiet affection. A silent thinking man with a greying head of hair, he was wondering how the years had passed. Years of marriage had passed  by as though in a flash, though actually it seemed every January that the year had passed ever so slowly.   The two sat in companionable silence, their morning routine a set ritual. Annie was smiling as she leafed through the newspapers, it was Karvachauth and celebrities were proclaiming their love and affection for their spouses with enthusiasm. And then there was the social media, the classic being a seventy year old guy saying his wife still looked as she did as a bride ever so many years ago.   “Well, he must be saying it without wearing his spectacles “”said Surya. Well, its in the mind”, said the quite but assertive Anni...

i    would like feedback on this. My feedback I see my young BM, PSU, in my area, leaving the branch at 8.30-9 pm daily. After 5.15 pm, only he and his outsourced office boy are left in the bank: the clerks, just two, leave basically sharp on time. I talked up to the senior officers once., they say Bank policy. Some say Slow recruitment process. Some say they need more contractual staff. As support. Not for decisions., Sone say large Pvt Bsnks Ihave employed -correction, outsourced- a lot of drudgery. May be their HR systems are not bound by guidelines on outsourcing. That is a maybe., Interestingly, the response I received from Three Senior PSU Bankers, Banking is largely knowing how to soak up the pressure. They say this is a fact. They do have now recruited associates etc, essentially on contract. A short true story A group of youngsters set up a group. All India. I was a mentor. Some other mentors were there. Slowly the group - the group was on Facebook - grew to...

  Introducing Operational Excellence in Rural Cooperative Banks By Dinesh K Kapila                                           CGM (Retd) NABARD (Published in Business Sandesh 01/10/2025) There are challenges and opportunities for introducing operational excellence within our   rural cooperative banking (RCB) sector. The RCBs are a critical pillar of the nation's financial inclusion strategy, they are hampered by deep-seated issues across financial performance, governance, technology, and human capital. The recent improvements in profitability and non-performing assets are certainly a positive development but are they masking underlying structural inefficiencies that may erode their long-term sustainability. The fundamental challenge is not merely operational but syste...

  A Short Story What is Innocence ? A certain Senior Officer, quite senior really, visited a district whose head quarters was located way up in the mountains. It was the cold season. He was feeling cold, very cold. Night fell., Now the officer in the district was not too aware of worldly matters, aware but not too aware. A Matter of fact guy. A teetotaler. The Senior Guy, left alone, rang up the District Officer and told him, I am feeling cold. Freezing. Do something about it. I need warmth. At the earliest. Our District Officer was puzzled, he asked about the heaters and quilts and got very terse answers, it’s cold, too cold, do something and quickly. He obviously wanted a full size bottle of choice brandy or scotch but wanted to convey it this way. The District Officer got into his car all upset. Went to the hotel, it was a rather good hotel and asked the General Manager, what are the arrangements to heat up the room of so and so. “Sir”, clarified the GM, “it’s all heated up, it’...

  Science and Commerce Education in Rural Areas. Published in Business Sandesh 1st Sept 2025 Dinesh Kumar Kapila. CGM (Retd). NABARD.   This thought was crystallised by Ms Komal Jaiswal, Start up Founder (GreenAffairs). Her work on soil testing (she is deep into it, don’t confuse it with the standard test), then the advisory etc. she generates, lead her to believe one main reason for the lack of diversification or even knowing the correct amount of inputs and the varied aspects of costing is the lack of awareness of basic accounting and science. This thought did come to me twenty five years ago as a DDM   of NABARD in Punjab. Specially as regards marginal or small farmers and their families. These subjects, if taught at the rural schools would be useful.   It’s a fact that the development and expansion of India’s economy depend heavily on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education. Alongside commerce as a subject. As the nation expan...