She was the first woman to head the country's largest bank — State Bank of India (SBI) — in 207 years. Yes, we are talking about recently-retired SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya.
In her first interaction after demitting office on October 7, she told the Times of India she regrets not seeing the end of the non-performing assets (NPAs) story.
Bhattacharya headed the country's largest bank during the most challenging time — both in terms of economy and policies. On challenges, she told ToI that her last year in office was the most challenging, mostly because of one-offs like demonetisation, merger with associated banks, implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
"The last year was especially challenging because several things came one after the other — demonetisation, merger (with associate banks) and GST. So we had to make rules as we went along and had to lay out the roadway as we progressed," Bhattacharya said.
Speaking on the most satisfying part of serving the state-owned lender from a probationary officer to the head of the institution, the former chief said: "The most satisfying part was getting the chairman's job. It cannot get better than that."
But she also said her only regret was that she couldn't finish the big job on bad loans and see the end of it, although she was hopeful that the issue would be resolved shortly.
On seeing herself as the head of the bank, she said one does not think of something that is "so far away" as a probationary officer.
Bhattacharya said she was an assistant general manger (AGM) for eight years "because the numbers were such that I never got called for promotion."
Bhattacharya hasn't zeroed in on what she will do post retirement, but she said she wanted to pursue a PhD. It was a long-time wish on the lines of broad-basing her growth, which is a matter of interest across the world because organised-sector jobs are reducing in number.
The government has named Rajnish Kumar as the new chairman of SBI for a three-year term. Kumar currently holds the position of managing director of the national banking group at SBI.
