Jagannathan was born in Bangalore and had schooling at Calcutta and Tiruchirapalli. He studied at Loyola College, Chennai and at St Joseph’s College at Tiruchirapalli. He was a topper in college and a university rank holder. He was a recipient of the Government of India scholarship for post-graduate studies. He taught at Loyola College for a year. Admission to MBA Program (1973-1975) at IIM, Ahmedabad was obtained. To take it up or not was a conflict at home. For lack of proper enlightened guidance, the booked train ticket to Ahmedabad was cancelled a few days before the start of the program.
He had joined State Bank of Mysore (SBM) as a Probationary Officer in Dec 1974 where he rose to become DGM (Credit). He went on deputation to State Bank of Hyderabad where he became GM (Commercial & International Banking) before moving over to State Bank of Patiala (SBP) as...