Ex-SBI chief Arundhati Bhattacharya joins Reliance Industries Ltd as director

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has appointed former SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya as an independent director on its board.

“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 company said its regulatory filing to stock exchanges.

She would be the second woman director on the RIL board apart from chairman Mukesh Ambani’s wife Nita Ambani. 

Ms Bhattacharya would remain on the RIL board for five years, starting from October 17.

Ms Bhattacharya, who joined SBI in 1977 as a



probationary officer, was the first woman to head the bank in 2013.

During her four-year tenure as the head of SBI, she had overseen the merger of all State Bank associate banks with SBI. 

Her tenure also saw SBI and RIL joining forces for setting up a payment bank. She had retired October 6, 2017.

The announcement led to an outcry on the social media about her violating cooling off period mandated for government employees for taking any other job. 

The allegations were premised on an assumption that SBI employees are required to stay off the formal work for two years after quiting their job at the bank.