Aditya Puri: The Marathon Man and his stellar run on the banking track

Few have matched the HDFC Bank chief's longevity at the crease, within and outside the banking industry; a non-nonsense leader, he had a particular dislike for liars and the incompetent

Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four minute mile (3:59.4) in 1954; it’s routine now. How tdough is it to run a bank? When private bank licenses were issued in the early to mid-1990s, few had a clue as to how the plot will pan out. Of the four spawned by institutional players – HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank are now the pack-leaders; IDBI Bank remains an “outlier” with a chequered life since its inception. Outside of the banks which answer to such a profile, only IndusInd Bank has survived (and done well). The rest have disappeared into the