Right from his college days, Sabyasachi Majumdar, currently vice-president at ICRA, aspired to be a financial analyst. “It could have been in any field, debt or equity, but the underlying theme was always financial analysis,” he says.

Armed with an MBA from IIM Lucknow, Majumdar started his career with ICRA in 1997 and has been with the company ever since.

His current responsibilities entail rating various corporates on their ability to service loans on time. By and large, his job is an extension of something he has always enjoyed doing –exploring corporate entities inside-out. He acquired a knack for tracking companies during his MBA days.

“I got hooked to the goings-on in most companies. Sometimes I would refer to two-three different magazines to get a perspective on an issue,” he says. In fact, it was his passion for reading that had made him reach the finals of BBC Mastermind India in 1998. Majumdar won several other quiz shows as well, including the Brand Equity Quiz in 2001.

On the professional front, while he mainly tracks the power, sugar and cement sectors, he finds the telecom space to be exciting as well. According to Majumdar, “The telecom sector is likely to see competition intensify in the coming years. Many subscribers are expected to be added in the lower segment. And there is going to be a lot of thrust on value-added services as well.”

Interestingly, he draws attention to the differences between the power and telecom industries. “Both sectors have attracted very large investments in the recent past. In telecom, the investment has been largely driven by private players, almost 80 per cent of it. In the power sector, it is exactly the opposite with the investment being driven largely by the public sector. Also, the telecom market is highly competitive whereas the power sector in India is still evolving.”

“In addition, leading international players are involved in the telecom industry whereas in power, this is not the case. Political interference too is lesser in the telecom sector as compared to the power sector, where there is a lot of pressure to provide free or subsidised power to various sections of society. In short, the power sector can learn a lot from the telecom sector,” says Majumdar.

In his spare time, Majumdar enjoys reading. Aside from financial publications like Business Today and The Economist, he is also very fond of books on nature. “I find the works of Charles Darwin extremely fascinating. I also enjoy seeing nature in all its hues,” he says.