search
      All speakers
      Dr. Shaji Krishnan V

      Dr. Shaji Krishnan V

      Chairman

      NABARD

      Get your pass View the agenda

      Dr Shaji Krishnan V. is the Chairman of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), India's apex development finance institution. With over three decades of leadership experience across commercial banking, development finance, rural and cooperative banking, digital transformation, climate finance, and financial inclusion, he has been at the forefront of shaping innovative and technology-enabled financial ecosystems that drive inclusive and sustainable growth.

      Prior to assuming office as Chairman in December 2022, he served as Deputy Managing Director of NABARD, where he spearheaded several transformational initiatives, including the establishment of NABARD's climate and sustainability architecture, fintech engagement strategy, data warehousing and analytics systems, digital supervision platforms, enterprise-wide risk management frameworks, and cooperative sector digitisation reforms.

      Dr. Krishnan serves on the boards and governing bodies of several prominent national institutions, including Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) and National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), and chairs NABVENTURES, NABARD's venture capital arm supporting agri-tech, food-tech, and rural innovation. He has previously served as a Board Member of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) and as Chairman of Kerala Gramin Bank, then India's largest Regional Rural Bank.

      A recognised thought leader in digital public infrastructure, fintech, cooperative transformation, sustainable finance, climate resilience, and development banking, Dr. Krishnan brings a unique perspective on leveraging innovation to bridge opportunity gaps and deliver inclusive growth across one of the world's largest rural economies. He holds a Ph.D. in Finance from Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode and a PGDM in Public Policy and Infrastructure Finance from Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad.

      Speaking at SFF 2026

      • 4:40–5:10pmThu 19 NovPolicy StageHall 3, Singapore EXPOOpen

        Technology Rewiring

        Financing Financial Infrastructure in Emerging Markets

        Policy StageHall 3, Singapore EXPOOpen

        About this session

        Building the infrastructure for financial inclusion and cross-border connectivity is one challenge. Financing it is another, and it's the one that usually gets skipped over in the excitement about what could be built. Is the binding constraint on financial inclusion the technology, or the capital to build and sustain it?

        This panel brings together leaders from a small economy building its own digital public infrastructure, a hub positioning itself to draw global capital into a fast-growing regional market, and a development bank whose entire mandate is getting credit to populations mainstream finance still doesn't reach. The dialogue will focus on where the funding for this actually comes from, state budgets, development finance, or private capital drawn in by the right market positioning, and what it takes for a smaller or developing market to make itself genuinely investable.