Question 1: Kindly brief us about yourself.
Answer: Hello my name is Saksham Bansal and I’m currently in my second year, pursuing Economics honors from Hansraj College. I’m currently serving as Director of Consulting in IFSA Hansraj along with being involved in many other societies. I was the one who started participating in the Case competition in our batch at University of Delhi. I participated in several National Case competitions and bagged various positions at 8 of them. Apart from all that, I'm a finance and marketing enthusiast.
Question 2 : What sparked your interest in finance and how are you exploring that passion in college?
Answer: Coming from a business background, I always had an interest in operations of business and finance. What piqued my interest was the definition of finance that we were taught in class 11 and then and there I decided to explore the path of finance. About exploring my passion in college, I joined IFSA and there I got to learn various aspects of finance. I'm open to all kinds of internships and opportunities in the field of finance and marketing. I'm currently an intern in Acclime India as a part of the Market Entry Strategy Team. For finance, I'm currently looking for more summer internships.
Question3 : What are the financial skills you feel one should develop that can help people in general life as well?
Answer: One thing I feel people in India lack is personal finance knowledge. It's one of the basic things that should be taught to people from 8th to 10th . I feel like students, regardless of their academic background, should be given basic personal financial knowledge. One should learn about basic management of finance. Students who wish to explore more about finance, I feel like starting from MS Excel is the most important but the first step in the world of finance.
Question4: What do you feel about the lack of financial teachings in elementary education in our country?
Answer: I definitely feel like more time should be invested in this. In India if you come from a basic business family, people are generally aware about personal finance. I think people not belonging to a business family have lesser knowledge about finance. I feel like this parody should be removed and some practical knowledge should be integrated in the middle school curriculum. More practical knowledge can be given like, students can be asked to prepare a chart on their savings and expenditure if they are given 100 rupees. Some exercises like this could be introduced and it is not very difficult to do.
Question 5 : What is the most interesting case study you came across while being involved in the various competitions at school and college level?
Answer: There was this case study competition where I came across a case of ES Sports and Akin Group to be merged. These are the 2 game developing companies and they were supposed to be merged. Both developed different types of games and wanted a common ground of the merger and this was the case study we had to prepare. I must say that winning that case study competition is one of my favorite case studies I have solved till today.
Question 6: How do you stay updated with new trends in the area of finance?
Answer: I try to go through this newspaper daily called The Financial Times but I’m not able to. I follow ET money and Economic Times and try to grasp as much as i can in a day. Whenever I get time, I just open ET money on my phone and read about the happenings.
Question7: How do you manage your academics with your extra curriculum?
Answer: I try to attend the classes of 3-4 main subjects and I give less time to my SEC and VAC classes as they are based more on practical subjects. I try to study for internals as they are scheduled and for one month prior to my exams I tend to keep everything aside and focus mainly on exams.
Question8 : Are there any specific areas in finance like investment banking or corporate financing that you are particularly interested in pursuing?
Answer: Yes, I'm particularly interested in pursuing investment banking and to build a career in this field in the later part of my life.
Question9 : How do you motivate yourself when you feel low when things don't go your way?
Answer : When I feel low I just try to read something or talk to my seniors. At a later stage of life, we’ll realize out of ten things we do, we’ll succeed in one. So I try to work on that one thing and think that something will come my way.
Question10: How do you think the increase in usage of AI will affect the future of finance?
Answer: So talking about the backhand of this topic, AI will take the place of humans. Nowadays AI Bots prepare financial models which used to be done by humans but finance is something that the human brain needs for sure. Like if you have to buy something it will always be a human brain that makes decisions and finance is something that is majorly driven by your instincts and when a person works and gains experience, their instincts strengthen so AI will take over finance to an extent only but will never replace humans.
Question11 What advice would you like to give to students who are interested in finance and want to excel in this field?
Answer: Firstly, try to advance your excel skills and secondly try to read as much as you can. I would suggest trying to read 4-5 newspapers. Thirdly try to work with numbers as finance is something where numbers play a huge role. Watch more movies related to finance but never get influenced with them as half of the movies don't show the real side of finance. Don't get disheartened and explore more. Ainly reading helps a lot in the field of finance as the more you read about general topics or business the better you get at finance.
HIGHLIGHTS-
●Getting AIR 6 in AISSCE Class12 Examination, Saksham started his college journey from Hansraj College .
●Being a finance and marketing enthusiast, Saksham is currently the Director of Consulting in IFSA Hansraj.
●Aspiring to become investment banker in future, Saksham is a business research intern in Acclime India.
●Scoring 97% in ICSE Board Examination and 99.54 %ile in CUET 2022, Saksham has always been consistent with his academics.
●Saksham was the winner of E-Summit (Finance Competition) in IIIT Delhi, April 2023 and National Runner Up in ENIGMA CaseStudy held in Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, April 2023.
●Saksham was also featured in a podcast called THE CASE POD where they talk about a merger of two gaming giants.
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