Quotes from Chanda Kochhar

Mark-to-market losses are not real loss. It's a notional loss. What we can monitor is the credit quality of the underlying papers. Are the companies paying interest on time? Is there any deterioration in the credit quality of these companies?

We need to take the country in the right direction, whether it is around administrative policy decisions or legislative changes or ensuring the macroeconomic stability.

We have to address impediments that stall implementation of projects and streamline the process to ensure smooth execution going forward. We need to address the leverage levels among corporates to restart investment cycle.

In India, we have the opportunity to give innovation the kind of scale that no other country in the world can. Innovation is a necessity.

Innovation is a necessity.

When we in our sector talk of the adoption of Indian consumers to new products and innovative ways of doing banking, they always exceed our expectations.

Normally, we define banks as being either retail or corporate, but ICICI transformed itself from a corporate bank into a retail bank and, now, a universal bank.

The biggest challenge for me, for all of us, was that the consumer-credit market was very, very new for India and for ICICI. I was trying to create something that was not just new for me but absolutely unknown to the organization and the country as a whole.

I always believe that, as you start out, while you should have a big dream - a big goal - but it's also important to move step by step. So, you know, frankly, if you ask me, when I started as a management trainee in 1984, I don't know that I really thought that I would become the CEO.

ICICI Bank was the first bank to recalibrate its ATMs for 2000 and then also for 500 rupee notes, and now we have some ATMs which give out 2000, 500, 100 - all of them.

Remember that relationships are important and have to be nurtured and cherished. Also keep in mind that a relationship is a two way street, so be ready to give a relationship just as you would expect the other person to be giving to you.

There were so many occasions when I wasn't around for my kids or my husband. But we learnt to work around it.

Adaptability is a great asset to have because life is so unpredictable, and things can change overnight for any of us.

We need to start work with the idea that we're going to learn every day. I learn, even at my position, every single day.

I had to create a team of people who had worked in this industry for other banks. What I brought to that team was ICICI's strategic thinking, but when it came to domain knowledge or product nuances, I had to learn from the team.

Successful strategic vision lay in the fact that we visualized the retail business to be much bigger, ahead of what others thought it to be.

If you look at the numbers from 2002 to 2016, we have consistently been market leaders. We have followed a well-articulated strategy, and our focus is to continue that strategy.

A demography that is digitising rapidly, and the potential to invest in infrastructure, are the key strengths of India.

Power projects are differently placed to road projects. There's difference stress across different companies across different groups based on their leverage levels.

Clearly, for an organization to move on, it is the job of the leader to be that sponge that takes the stress from inside and the outside.

I take all the stress on myself so everyone else can work without stress.

We have to always set an aspiration for ourselves and then strive to get there.

You have to handle the challenges and emerge stronger from them, rather than allow them to bog you down.

Our institutional framework needs to be bolstered further. We have to implement laws like the proposed Bankruptcy Code and GST (Goods and Services Tax), which will create efficiencies and strongly support the business environment.