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Cobbler's Son

I spent a lot of time in banks with my parents on this trip. The last time I was inside a bank in India was when I was working here. A long time ago and less complex times - you took a token and waited in line for your turn. Computerization was very limited and there was no access to internet back in those days. Decades later, not much has changed and that is such a tragedy considering our people have coded most of the banking applications around the world. 

Two of the significant core banking solutions come from TCS and Infosys. There is clearly no lack of talent required to digitize banking end to end in India. Sadly they have not even bothered to begin the process from any end. In two large banks, the entire intake process was through paper forms filled by hand in triplicate, tons of documents photocopied and self-attested and a battery of other paper work filled by the bank personnel where I was asked the same questions a dozen times. That was not even the worst of it. 

After spending three hours doing said paper-work, upon returning home, personnel from the bank started to call me for information that was filled out in half a dozen forms. Then they outdid themselves by coming to my parents' home to take pictures of original documents that they had photocopied also a dozen times in the bank. The level of inefficiency, ineptitude and lack of process was mind-boggling. 

Work that was supposed to be completed in three days was not done in over two weeks. Even absence of any digitization, these folks could put themselves out their misery by defining workflows and processes for their work. But that thought never crossed their mind. The only reason I could think of is they are compensated for the appearance of being busy and clocking time at bank. Results delivered and customer experience are not the metrics that drive them.

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