The successors of the country’s largest bank, State Bank of India (SBI) have been identified. Deputy Managing Directors Hemant Contractor and Pratip Chaudhuri have been recognized as possible contenders for promotion as the Managing Director of SBI, although the proposals are still pending with the department of personnel and training, market sources revealed. Out of the two, one of them is likely to be appointed as a replacement to S. K. Bhattacharya, who superannuated last month. The second Managing Director, R. Sridharan, is due to retire next year. It is also expected that the government will expand the number of Managing Directors to four. To be eligible for the post, a candidate must have two years of residual service left. SBI can have seven deputy managing directors. Four Deputy Managing Directors –Hemant Contractor (Head of Corporate and Wholesale Banking), K. Krishnakumar (Head of Information Technology), Diwakar Gupta (handling Rural and National Banking) and P. Chaudhuri (looking after the International Banking Business) are eligible for the Managing Director’s post. Interestingly, the four DMDs who are eligible for the Managing Directors’ post also become the contender to head the country largest bank when the current Chairman O.P. Bhatt retires in March 2011.

People Matters’ Take: Replacing Chairman O. P. Bhatt will be no easy task for his successor as Bhatt has played a pivotal role in taking the bank to the pole position.