Arundhati Bhattacharya: SBI Banker To Every Indian, Indeed

The Other Feather in the CAP is the Merger if SBI With Its Assosiate Banks, The First Large - Scale Consolidation in the Indian Banking Industry.

- Raghu Mohan

FEW BANKS PLAY SUCH A pivotal role in a country’s economy as the State Bank of India (SBI); it’s truly a ‘Big Daddy’. At end-March, the bank’s share of systemic deposits and advances stood at 23.07 per cent and 21.16 per cent, respectively (after the merger of SBI with its associate banks and the Bharatiya Mahila Bank in the previous fiscal). And if you were to also pencil-in the share of state-run banks in this business at around 70 per cent, it makes SBI (though governed under a separate Act) very much the ‘polestar’.

No doubt that SBI has shown the way admirably. And for the same Arundhati Bhattacharya, the bank’s self-effacing chairperson is the ‘Woman Business Leader of the Year’ in BW Businessworld’s edition of the ‘Most Respected Companies 2017’. She was also conferred the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award in Banking’ in BW’s ‘Best Banks’ Survey 2017’ earlier this year. It tells you Bhattacharya is a standout both in her peer group and India Inc.