Arundhati Bhattacharya (born 18 March 1956) is an Indian banker and business executive. In October 2013 she became the first woman to chair the State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest bank, in its more than 200-year history. She led it through the merger with its associate banks and a push into digital banking. Since 2020 she has headed the American software company Salesforce in India and South Asia. She received the Padma Shri in 2025.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Arundhati Bhattacharya |
| Born | 18 March 1956, Calcutta (now Kolkata), India |
| Age | 70 |
| Occupation | Banker, business executive |
| Positions | Chairperson, State Bank of India (2013–2017); President and CEO, Salesforce South Asia (2020–present) |
| Education | Lady Brabourne College and Jadavpur University, Kolkata (English literature) |
| Spouse | Pritimoy Bhattacharya |
| Children | 1 (Sukrita) |
| Honour | Padma Shri (2025) |
Early Life
She was born into a Bengali family and grew up in the steel towns of Bhilai and Bokaro, where her father, Prodyut Kumar Mukherjee, was an engineer and her mother a homeopathic doctor. She studied at St. Xavier’s School in Bokaro and read English literature in Kolkata.
Career
She joined SBI as a probationary officer in 1977, aged 22, and worked across retail and corporate banking, foreign exchange, treasury and the New York office. She helped set up several of the bank’s subsidiaries, including its general insurance and custodial services arms, and headed SBI Capital Markets. She became the bank’s chief financial officer and then, on 7 October 2013, its chairperson.
She took charge when bad loans were mounting across Indian banks. She introduced a two-year sabbatical for women employees for child or elder care, launched the YONO digital banking app and in 2017 completed the merger of five associate banks and Bharatiya Mahila Bank with SBI, which put it among the world’s fifty largest banks. Her term was extended by a year, and she retired in October 2017. Forbes listed her among the world’s most powerful women several times.
After serving on company boards she joined Salesforce in April 2020 as chairperson and chief executive for India, a move from public-sector banking to a technology company that surprised many.
Personal Life
She is married to Pritimoy Bhattacharya, a former professor at IIT Kharagpur. Her memoir, Indomitable: A Working Woman’s Notes on Life, Work and Leadership, was published in 2022.
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Arundhati Bhattacharya born?
Arundhati Bhattacharya was born on 18 March 1956 in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India and is 70 years old.
What is Arundhati Bhattacharya’s occupation?
Occupation: Banker, business executive.
Featured image: Arundhati Bhattacharya, then chairperson of the State Bank of India, at an event in Kolkata, 23 May 2014. Photo by Biswarup Ganguly, licensed under CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
