Arundhati Bhattacharya made it to number one spot due to her relentless fight against bad loans. 
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Arundhati Bhattacharya made it to number one spot due to her relentless fight against bad loans. Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairperson of State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest bank, has been named as the most-powerful woman in business in the country by Fortune Magazine. ICICI Bank's Chanda Kochhar and Shikha Sharma of Axis Bank follow Bhattacharya at the second and the third ranks respectively.
In the Fortune India list of 50 most-powerful businesswomen, there are as many as eight new entrants. Interestingly, two first timers - Bhattacharya and Nishi Vasudeva, chairperson and managing director at HPCL (fourth place) - have made a cut into the top 10.
Bhattacharya made it to number one spot due to her relentless fight against bad loans. Since she took over a year or so ago, she has improved assets quality, cut costs and recapitalised SBI. "That's no mean feat when you consider that SBI has 190 foreign offices, a market cap of Rs 1.9 lakh crore and 2,22,033 employees," Fortune India noted.
These powerful women represent various sectors such as banking, finance, health care, media, fashion and entertainment.
Other new entrants are Shahnaz Husain, founder of Shahnaz Group of Companies; Zarin Daruwala, president (wholesale banking) ICICI Bank; Archana Hingorani, chief executive officer (CEO) and executive director of IL&FS Investment Managers; Ireena Vittal, Management Consultant independent director; Vani Kola, managing director (MD) of Kalaari Capital and Valerie Wagoner, MD Zipdial.
FULL COVERAGE: India's Most Powerful Businesswomen 2014
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