Arundhati Bhattacharya joins Reliance Industries board as additional director

Former SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya has joined the board of Reliance Industries (RIL) as independent additional director, the Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate said in a regulatory filing. The former SBI Chairman has been appointed to the RIL board for a period of five years starting from October 17, 2018, subject to shareholder approval, the statement further said.

"The Board of Directors at its meeting held today, i.e. October 17, 2018 has appointed Smt. Arundhati Bhattacharya as an Additional Director of the Company, designated as an Independent Director," the RIL statement to stock exchanges said.

The appointment comes days after India focused private equity firm ChrysCapital Advisors LLP announced Bhattacharya as an advisor.  

Bhattacharya joined SBI in 1977 as a probationary officer and went on to become the first woman to head the bank as Chairman in 2013. After a four-year stint at the helm, she retired from the SBI last year in October. In her 40-year career, Bhattacharya held several positions at the SBI. She handled various departments such as foreign exchange, treasury, retail operations, human resources and investment banking. Bhattacharya was also the chief executive of SBI's Capital Markets.

Bhattacharya is credited with supervising the merger of six asscociate banks with SBI, creating an entity three times larger than its nearest competitor, after the exercise went for six weeks and without any disruption to customer service. Under her tenure as the chairperson of SBI, she took several technology initiatives such as launching fully digital branches and wallet 'Buddy'.

In other news, Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), today acquired 12.7 per cent shareholding in SkyTran Inc. SkyTran is a US-based technology company which aims to solve traffic congestion by introducing personal rapid transit systems.

Reliance said it has made the investment in SkyTran with the aim to foster an exclusive partnership in India, where it would work closely with SkyTran to develop pilot implementations followed by implementation of its network in India at scale.

Reliance invests in Skytran to develop personal rapid transportation system in India