Meet India's top women bankers

The banking and financial services sector has several women at the helm of affairs. Arundhati Bhattacharya is the latest to join the list when she took over as the new chief of State Bank of India (SBI) in October. Ms Bhattacharya is the first women to head SBI in its 207-year history. She joined SBI as a direct recruit officer in 1977 and in her over three decades of service, she has held various assignments spanning credit, forex, treasury and retail operations. She was involved in setting up several new units of the bank, including SBI General Insurance, SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Fund, SBI SG Securities Ltd as well as the launch of new IT platforms such as mobile banking and financial planning in the bank. Meet some of the women heads in the banking sector.

Chanda Kochhar is the managing director and chief executive officer of ICICI Bank, India's second-largest bank and the largest in the private sector. She began her career, with erstwhile ICICI Limited in 1984 and was elevated to the Board of Directors of ICICI Bank in 2001. She was instrumental in establishing ICICI Bank during the 1990s.

Shikha Sharma is the managing director & CEO of Axis Bank since 2009. She began her career with the ICICI group where she has worked across various verticals like project finance, retail banking and investment banking. Her last assignment was as managing director & CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company.

Naina Lal Kidwai is the country head of HSBC India. An MBA from Harvard Business School, she is also the president of FICCI.

Kalpana Morparia (left) is chief executive officer of J.P. Morgan, India. A graduate in law from Bombay University, she is also a member of J.P. Morgan's global strategy team headquartered in New York and the JP Morgan Asia Pacific Executive Committee. Prior to joining J.P. Morgan India, Ms Morparia had served in various positions at ICICI Group.

Usha Ananthasubramanian (second from right) is the chairperson and managing director of Bharatiya Mahila Bank, the first all-women bank. In a career spanning over 31 years, she has worked in various positions in the banking and allied areas. She started her career in the actuarial department with LIC and banking career in February 1982 as a specialist officer in the planning stream of Bank of Baroda. Before joining BMB, she was an executive director with Punjab National Bank.

Archana Bhargava is the chairperson and managing director of United Bank of India. She joined Punjab National Bank as management trainee in 1977. After an career of 34 years in Punjab National Bank working in various areas including large corporate credit, priority sector, planning & development, financial inclusion she got elevated to executive director of Canara Bank in April 2011.

Vijayalakshmi Iyer is the chairperson and managing director of Bank of India. Prior to this assignment, she was the executive director of Central Bank of India. A post-graduate in commerce with CAIIB, Ms Iyer started her career in Union Bank of India in 1975.

Aisha de Sequeira is the co-country head and head of investment banking - India, at Morgan Stanley. She joined Morgan Stanley in 1995. She received a B.S. in Engineering (Electronics and Telecommunications) from the University of Goa and an M.S. in Public and Private Management from the Yale School of Management.

Vishakha Mulye is the managing director & CEO of ICICI Venture, a specialist alternative assets manager based in India and a wholly owned subsidiary of ICICI Bank. She joined the ICICI Group in 1993 and was the CFO of ICICI Bank from 2005-2007.

Kaku Nakhate is the India head of Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Vedika Bhandarkar is the managing director of Credit Suisse India. (Photo: Reuters)