HYDERABAD: Ajay Pal Banga, the Indian-American business leader nominated by US President Joe Biden to lead the World Bank, is a Hyderabad Public School (HPS) student.
The school, alumni for several industry leaders including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, announced that Banga belonged to the 1976 batch.
Banga studied in the school probably when his father, Lt Gen. Harbhajan Singh Banga, was posted in the city.
Sriram Kavikondala, a HPS 1975 batch student, said the entire class was delighted on Banga’s incredible achievement. “I’m the only guy in the batch still living in Hyderabad. Most of them have settled abroad. However, WhatsApp has reunited most of our classmates. When we learnt of the news of Banga (being nominated by the US President Biden as World Bank chief), the entire class was delighted.”
“We are yet to get to touch with Banga after the announcement,” Kavikondala said.
There was one regret, though. Banga was not in the school the day the class picture was taken, Kavikondala told Deccan Chronicle Gusti J. Noria, president of The HPS Society said, “It is a moment of immense pride for our school as yet another member of our alumni fraternity ascends to the top post of a global organisation. We are extremely proud of Ajay’s distinction and as we continue the tradition of producing world leaders, we wish him all the best and look forward to having him join in the centennial celebrations throughout the year.”
Notably, HPSians Banga, Nadella and Narayan were together featured in the Harvard Business Review in 2019 among the top 10 best-performing CEOs globally. Born in India, Banga holds a degree in economics from Delhi University, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He started at Nestle in 1981, he went on to join Pepsico and then Citigroup. When Banga met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York in 2014, the two discussed India’s prospects in the US business community. In 2016, Banga was awarded the Padma Shri. He is co-chair of the Partnership for Central America, where he worked closely with US Vice-President Kamala Harris to mobilise public, private, and non-profit resources for Northern Central America.
Apart from Banga, Nadella and Narayanan, the HPS statement contained a long list of its alumni in high places: Ambassadors Syed Akbaruddin and D. Bala Venkatesh Varma; Syed Basharat Ali, co-founder, Cavium, Inc; Hyderabad police commissioner C.V. Anand; Lord Karan Bilimoria of the UK; Air Marshal Jonnalagedda Chalapaty, Southern Air Command; Supreme Court senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy; V. Prem Watsa, founder chairman and CEO, Fairfax Holdings, Shailesh Jejurikar, COO, P&G; Satish Reddy, chief engineer, NASA Johnson Space Centre and Sriram Panchu, senior advocate and founder, Concord Mediation.
The politicians on the list included AP Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy MIM leaders Asaduddin and Akbaruddin Owaisi; former chief minster Kiran Kumar Reddy; former Union ministers Ashok Gajapathi Raju and M.M. Pallam Raju.
The singer Talat Aziz, the actors Akkineni Nagarjuna, Rana Daggubati and Ram Charan Tej were on the list from the entertainment field, as also commentator Harsha Bhogle.
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