SBI'S BANKER FOR ALL SEASONS

Betting big on digital, Dinesh Khara has taken India's biggest lender to dizzying new heights.

- RAJIV RANJAN SINGH

STATE BANK OF INDIA is synonymous with the backbone of Indian banking. What started out as the Bank of Calcutta on June 2, 1806 is currently the country’s largest banking institution, with branches spread from Minicoy Island in Lakshadweep to Tangsey in Ladakh, along with numerous branches operating overseas.

The legacy and deep network make the role of SBI chairman both lucrative and stressful. Growing a behemoth like SBI is a task in itself because of its scale of operations. The bank’s current loan book is around ₹32 lakh crore (it grew 16% in FY23), almost one fourth of the cumulative loan book of the banking sector (₹135 lakh crore at the end of FY23).

MD and CEO Dinesh Khara is a career banker who started out as a probationary officer at SBI in 1984. Since then he has moved up the ladder and held many key positions within the bank and its subsidiaries.