Arundhati Bhattacharya

60 State Bank of India

Three years ago, when Arundhati Bhattacharya took over as the first woman chairperson of State Bank of India, she spelt out some strategic goals – taming asset quality deterioration, improving risk management framework, checking costs, improving delivery standards and non-interest income, and leveraging technology. She has made significant progress on all parameters except asset quality, where the clean-up is still on. She is now in the midst of another challenge – SBI’s merger with five associate banks, which have 5 per cent market share in deposits and advances. This could be a test case for larger consolidation in the PSB space. “I do not know whether ours is a test case, but I do know that the government is keen to create a few large banks, which is the right thing to do,” says Bhattacharya. ~

SMART MOVE Arundhati Bhattacharya has rolled out several digital banking initiatives to compete with private banks