Rich Banker, Poor banker

Here is a list the remuneration of bosses of top Indian banks

HDFC Bank’s Managing Director Aditya Puri earned Rs 9.73 crore in the financial year ended March 2016. Even if Arundhati Bhattacharya, chief of State Bank of India (India's largest public sector bank), serves for another 30 years, she cannot match what Puri earned in one year. If one brings in other parameters, such as number of branches and size of balance sheet, the gulf only widens. However, the paths taken by Puri and Bhattacharya and their relative contributions in building their respective organisations are very different. While Puri has been at the helm almost from scratch, it is structurally impossible for any public sector banker to boast of such a record. Most career bankers get hardly a couple of years at the helm in the public sector, as they work their way through a seniority-driven and unionised talent pool. While factors such as job security and perks partly make it up for public sector bankers, the government has from time to time made noises about market-linked salaries, at least at the top. But, getting there seems easier said than done, as one needs to take a giant leap over this chasm that separates top private and public sector banks: