Arundhati Bhattacharya: 6 interesting facts about India’s most influential female banker

As rumours doing the round within the financial circles of the nation, Bhattacharya is likely to replace Raghuram Rajan as the next RBI Governor.

New Delhi, June 15: State Bank of India (SBI) chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya began trending this week, after rumours within the financial circles of the nation claimed that she would likely replace Raghuram Rajan as the next RBI Governor in September. Her performance as the Managing Director of IDBI bank has seemingly impressed Centre as she has played the forefront role in the clearing up the country’s longest bank balance sheet, which is plagued by the menace of bad loans. (ALSO READ: Arundhati Bhattacharya to replace Raghuram Rajan as RBI Governor?)

The 60-year-old head of SBI is considered to be the most influential female banker of India. Her contributions have been recognized by global financial journals. She was included in the Forbes 2015 and 2016 list among the top 30 most influential women in the world. She was also ranked as the 4th most powerful woman in Asia by Fortune Asia Pacific. With her exemplary skills, combined with a banking experience of 36 years, would she be the perfect replacement for incumbent RBI chief Raghuram Rajan?

Here are the 6 lesser known facts about Arundhati Bhattacharya:

1. Although Bhattacharya is one of the most influential name among the India Inc, she originally had a passion for Arts. It was mere fate, that she ended up being a probation officer in SBI, back in 1977. Bhattacharya had completed her graduation in Literature from Kolkata’s Lady Brabourne College, and went ahead to pursue post graduation in the same stream from Jadavpur University.

2. Entering the banking business was unintentional for Bhattacharya. While she was pursuing her post graduation from Literature in Jadavpur University, some of her hostel friends told her to give a try to PO (probation officer) exams for SBI. Interestingly, she cleared the exams and was offered a handsome salary, which compelled her to make the switch.

3. In her 38-year-career in the banking operation, Bhattacharya never felt the need to upgrade her on-paper qualifications. Bhattacharya’s seasoned skills as a banker is the reason why she is heading a 2018-year-old public sector institution, without holding a specialized banking degree.

4. Bhattacharya has a style of working outside her comfort zone. Throughout her tenure of 38 years, she has headed several branches of SBI, including retail operations, human resources, foreign exchange, treasury and investment banking. In all, she has taken up 11 jobs in her ongoing SBI stint.

5. Bhattacharya has a drive for innovation. Upon taking over the charge, she was keen on removing the perception that public banks perform in staggering manner and the services which they render are laggards. She was instrumental behind the introduction of SBI digital branches.

6. In 2006, she was real close on ending her three-decade old relation with SBI. At the time, she was posted in Lucknow. As she was not able to find an ideal school for her son in the city, Bhattacharya was close on quitting her job and returning back to Kolkata. However, she was prevented from taking the drastic decision by her boss M.S. Verma.