Call for inclusion

TO SPEAK with Ajay Banga is to take a trip around the world. But the trek isn't through concrete jungles and glitzy retail stores, even as Mastercard helps to get shoppers, well, just about "everything else", as its famed slogan goes.

The tour with Mastercard's CEO is through Egypt and Lebanon and Kenya, places which may struggle to get the right and proper funds through the right and proper channels, so that food can be put on the table, and emerging economies like theirs can grow and thrive.

As Mr Banga works through what is at least his second cup of coffee this mid-morning, he goes in rapid fire about one topic that engages him as a top CEO: global inequality.