Arundhati Bhattarcharya is one of the most famous woman banker’s in India and she is the only first woman to become the chairperson of State Bank of India. Here are some facts about the most powerful lady from India.
1. Listed as 36th most powerful women in the world by Forbes, Arundhati Bhattacharya is the first woman to be the Chairperson of State Bank of India.
2. Born in a Bengali Hindu Kulin Brahmin family in the city of Kolkata, Arundhati belongs to a middle class family and her father Prodyut Kumar Mukherjee worked at Bhilai Steel Plant.
3. She took English literature as a subject in her graduation from Kolkata’s Lady Brabourne College and completed her post graduation from Jadavpur University.
4. Before becoming the chairperson of SBI she was managing director and chief financial officer of SBI. In her earlier roles, she was deputy managing director and corporate development officer of SBI.
5. Bhattacharya is the first woman to lead an India-based Fortune 500 company. Initially she joined SBI in 1977 as probationary officer at the age of 22 years.
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6. She has been involved in the launch of several new businesses such as SBI General Insurance, SBI Custodial Services and the SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Fund.
7. In 2015, she was named the 30th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes. This is her first time being ranked on the list. In the same year, she was ranked among the FP Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine and was named as the 4th most powerful women in Asia Pacific by Fortune.
8. This is the first time that an SBI chief will get a three-year tenure – the first time that any SBI chairperson is getting such a fixed term-irrespective of when the person will retire.
9. During her post graduation days, she had heard about the PO (Probationary Officer) exam. Just because the post of PO offered a good salary, she went ahead and gave the exam with her hostel friends. In the year 1977, she joined SBI as the PO.
