that from my studies i know how to clothe the bones with flesh and blood and skin and fur. ” “ indeed? ” said the third scholar. “ how curious. it so happens that i know the next step. once the animal is formed, i know how to breathe life into it. clearly, this is the place where we should try out our knowledge to see if it works in the world. ” the others agreed. bis central bankers ’ speeches the fourth man, the one who wasn ’ t a scholar, was simply struck dumb by this display of learning and didn ’ t say anything at all. so the first scholar stepped forward and arranged the bones as they would be in a living lion. then he stepped back, and the second scholar stepped forward and clothed the bones with flesh, and blood, and skin, and fur. then he stepped back, and the third scholar stepped forward, about to breathe life into the animal, when the fourth man said “ wait! that ’ s a lion! that ’ s a lion you are about to bring to life. it could eat us up! stop! think what you ’ re doing! ” “ we know what we ’ re doing, ” said the scholars. “ we have studied this all our lives. don ’ t worry. just leave everything to us. ” “ well, all right, ” said their friend, “ but... could you wait till i climb a tree? ” “ certainly, ” said the scholars, and they waited till their friend had climbed a convenient tree. then the third scholar went back to the procedure of breathing life into the animal. and sure enough, the lion started breathing, opened its eyes, looked at the three scholars, sprang upon them, and ate them up. after the lion had gone away, the fourth man, the one who wasn ’ t a scholar, climbed down from the tree and made his way back to the village, taking with him no great treasure of gold and jewels, but only his own common sense. talent, to me, is indeed like common sense – you have it, or you do not have it. what is talent management? 8. talent management – is it the management of entertainers? there is an enormous array of literature and research on “ talent management ” – and a whole lot of companies and consultancies minting money out of “ talent management ”. what actually is talent management or human capital management – the more fashionable phrase – implying

k c chakrabarty : talent acquisition and management keynote address by dr k c chakrabarty, deputy governor of the reserve bank of india, at seminar on talent acquisition and management organized by the ibps, mumbai, 31 may 2011. * * * the assistance provided by shri shailendra trivedi in preparation of this address is gratefully acknowledged. 1. shri m. balachandran, director, ibps, shri k. ramakrishnan, ceo, iba, members of governing board of the ibps, faculty members of ibps, my old friends and colleagues, mr. saurabh tripathi of bcg who made an excellent presentation, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. it is a pleasure and privilege to be here at the seminar on talent acquisition and management organized by the ibps. the seminar has very interesting objectives in that it attempts to review and evolve systems and tools for identification of talent for induction from outside and from within for recruitment, promotions and placements – in the context of changing needs of the banking industry. 2. it is only apt for ibps to be holding this seminar. after all, the core job of ibps is talent acquisition through selection of competent and efficient cadres of personnel, their promotions and placement etc. the institute has made good progress in doing its job. it has moved from a total of 8 lakh registered candidates in 2001 – 02 to screening about 13 million candidates in 2010 – 11. the progress and professionalism is indeed, commendable and i take this opportunity to congratulate shri balachandran, the ibps governing board and their entire team. 3. though i do not have professional hr qualifications, i do consider myself an hr person although i see things in a slightly different perspective. i believe hr cannot be a departmental function ; hr cannot be an individual function. human resource development has to be a movement in any society if we have to upgrade the knowledge and skill level in a society, which is very much required in our country. 4. having said that, let me return to the theme of this seminar. the topic assumes great importance considering the fact that the banks in india today are faced with major challenges on the talent front. currently our banks employ close to ten lakh people ( 9. 44 lakh ). of these, around 7. 5 lakh people are employed by the public sector banks. mr. balachandran estimates that banks will have to recruit about 7.