 At a time when economic reforms and liberalization are the passwords for the future, investment banking has assumed tremendous importance in corporate industry and the economy of the country. Dominated by men in the past, investment banking now has a plethora of cash-savvy women in top positions. One such successful woman is Naina Lal Kidwai, India's best-known deal maker. Okay, so perfect. Even as a child, Naina was highly focused and clear about her goals. She was very close to her father, who was her role model. I think from maybe the time that she was 13 years old or around that, was very clear about what she wanted to do with her life. And she set about achieving it with single-minded determination. So, there was no question of compromising. For her, it was going to be an MBA, a career in finance. All that was very clear, and everything she did was weird towards achieving that result. Naina's interest in investment banking began to get refined as she was finishing her chartered accountancy and then through the Harvard Business School. It's a very creative end of finance. I'd certainly like to believe it is the most creative end in finance. And essentially what we do is we assist companies, in my case, typically middle-to-large companies, not so much the smaller companies, in understanding their finance needs. And then we don't just stop at being a consultant. We go out and execute on the advice we have given our clients, which is basically raise money for them. It could be in international markets. It could be in domestic markets. It could be by way of equity or debt. And also, mergers and acquisitions. Should they sell off a division? Should they buy one? If so, at what price? And how most effectively to handle that? There were barely three or four key players in large investment banking in India at the time. And Naina joined the largest of them, which was Grindley's Bank. Thinking of investment bank in those days, it was pretty much a narrow field. And it was primarily focused on merchant banking, raising of funds for companies. We didn't have the kind of sophisticated mergers and acquisitions that you see happening. So to opt for that was, I thought, pretty much a high-risk decision for her to take. You chase a deal and you got to get that deal to make yourself known and heard in the marketplace. After working successfully in the investment banking division at Grindley's, Naina was asked to take on retail banking. Typically, she took up the challenge and made a success of it. Naina was much sought after for her expertise in investment banking. She moved on to join J.M. Morgan Stanley, the leading international investment bankers as their country head. Naina's vast experience will be utilized by various organizations, media and the government for her ideas, input and advice. Not only in investment banking, but the economy in general. The challenges are huge because it is a very political process. We need money. We need international money to come in, which would allow for investment in these sectors. India does not have that amount of capital to secure progress in infrastructure the way we require. And unless we get our privatizations sorted out because these are our large companies, these are the companies that are in infrastructure today, we are not going to be able to attract capital on the scale the country requires. I think one of the most significant aspects of our new technology wave in India and also the improvement of telecommunications and telecom is going to be how can technology enable exactly this, that is improvement of the rural sectors in countries such as India. It's allowing large companies who can put in the systems through technology and telecom to monitor right down at the rural areas what is going on. Our challenge of course is going to be telecommunications and power. I mean, can you work these machines out there? Do we have these facilities to actually get down to where we need to go? And Naina has far to go. India today is poised for change. Its economy is looking outwards and international investors are looking towards India. And as one of India's leading investment bankers, Naina has a major role to play in its growth.