. in other words, the framework for mitigating conflicting interests should be constructed inside - out, from the core point of an individual's value - oriented personality to an outer layer of enabling environment, through all possible means available to your profession. the conflict mitigation process, at its absolute broadest, should strike a reasonable balance that helps guard against present and future problems of conflicts of interest while preserving those traits of your profession which are the source of its creative and competitive genius. sometimes, due to certain professional / personal problems or set - backs, one may not be able to focus fully on one ’ s profession. that is quite understandable, but the touchstone is as to whether, over one ’ s entire career, one has been able to constantly deliver to the highest bis central bankers ’ speeches standards of professional excellence which is achieved through high levels of knowledge and skills coupled with an unshakable sense of values and ethics. another important aspect is that the top professionals in high positions should be very measured in their talk and behaviour, because they are looked upon as role models for the profession in particular and the society in general. ( d ) conflicts of interest and finance professionals – an uneasy relationship in contemporary times, especially since the onset of the present ongoing crisis in 2008, among the professions – finance related professionals have been in the limelight due to all the wrong reasons. in the period immediately prior to 2008, the continuous saga of financial scandals involving high profile companies like enron, worldcom, arthur andersen, tyco in usa ; ahold, parmalat in europe, citi bank's activities in europe and japan, bnp paribas are still fresh in one's memory. more recently, those involving j p morgan, standard chartered, hsbc in the international arena serve as examples. the recent episodes of proven transgressions by some of our banks also raise concerns and highlight the critical role of ethics in business. in all these cases, expert observers have concluded that the role of the finance professionals and, more importantly, their exploitation of conflicts of interests as being at or near the centre of such scandal - driven financial storms. conflicts of interest, of late, have reappeared in our public discourse. it is alleged that, we in india, are not appreciative enough of the world of conflicts of interests. it is also argued that we do not appreciate the separation of roles and responsibilities of our private and public lives ; and that we freely

the most private aspect of your life, there if you are excellent, you will be excellent everywhere. " swamy vivekananda has also talked about the essential ingredients for achieving human excellence. he particularly emphasises on atma shraddha – self - confidence i. e. having faith in oneself – which brings out the best out of us and a sense of honour and self - respect. if we work with such self - confidence, we put our heart and soul in whatever tasks we undertake. it ’ s only soulful work which becomes excellent. wherever there is no sense of honour, personal worth and dignity, one ’ s work becomes sloppy and slipshod. professionals need to especially remember this all through. following atma shraddha, the other ingredients for achieving human excellence are knowledge, responsibility, love and concern for others, as expounded by swamy vivekananda. bis central bankers ’ speeches iii. other essentials of human excellence at a technical level, human excellence is achieved when there is a harmonious blend of intelligence, emotional and spiritual quotients ( iq, eq and sq respectively ). iq represents material capital reflected in rational intelligence and concerned about “ what i think ”? eq represents social capital reflected in emotional intelligence and concerned about “ what i feel ”? the level of eq determines how one handles relationships. in a profession, eq is most important because it ’ s all about handling relationships with one ’ s clients, peers, professional associations, regulators and the society around. sq represents spiritual capital reflected in spiritual intelligence and concerned about “ what i am ”? physiologically, left brain is used for iq ( thinking – serial processing ) while right brain is used for eq ( feeling – parallel processing ). given its expansive and all encompassing nature, the whole brain is pressed into service for sq ( about “ being ” – synchronous processing ). the above can also be grouped as hard and soft skills. as a general rule, hard skills are relatively easy to acquire ; while soft skills are hard to come by. in other words, human excellence calls for qualities of both the head and the heart. iv. essentials of professional excellence knowledge, skills and management of conflicts of interest are the three most essential ingredients of professional excellence. professional excellence predominantly calls for both personal competence ( how we manage ourselves! ) and social competence ( how we manage relationships! ). ( a ) knowledge – on the knowledge front,