Chanda Kochhar, MD and CEO of ICIC Bank successfully made it to the fifth rank in Fortune magazine's list of most powerful women in business outside the United States.
Kochhar was the only woman to introduce the concept of consumer credit market which was absolutely new not only to her but for the whole banking sector in the country. Kochhar’s mother was a huge inspiration to her throughout her life.
Her family was a Sindhi family, who lost their land and wealth during the partition of 1947. However, after her father’s death Kochhar’s mother worked as a designer in a boutique to support her three children.
Under Kochhar's leadership, ICICI Bank won the "Best Retail Bank in India" award in 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2005 and "Excellence in Retail Banking Award" in 2002. Kochhar personally was awarded "Retail Banker of the Year 2004 (Asia-Pacific region) by the Asian Banker, "Business Woman of the Year 2005" by The Economic Times and "Rising Star Award" for Global Awards 2006 by Retail Banker International. Kochhar has also consistently figured in Fortune’s list of "Most Powerful Women in Business" since 2005.
She climbed up the list debuting with the 47th position in 2005, moving up 10 spots to 37 in 2006 and then to 33 in 2007 in the 2008 list, Kochhar features at the 25th spot. In 2009, she debuted at number 20 in the Forbes "World's 100 Most Powerful Women list".
She is the second Indian in the list behind the Indian National Congress chief Sonia Gandhi at number 13. In 2010, she fell to number 92 in the Forbes list, but in 2011 bounced back to 43. As of 2014, she ranks at #43. And in 2015 she climbed up to #35 again. Kochhar has also consistently figured in Fortune’s list of "Most Powerful Women in Business" since 2005.
In 2009, she debuted at number 20 in the Forbes "World's 100 Most Powerful Women list" and climbed to the 10th spot in 2010. In 2011, she featured in Business Today list of the "Most Powerful Women – Hall of Fame". In 2011, she also featured in the “50 Most Influential People in Global Finance List of Bloomberg Markets. She was awarded with ASSOCHAM Ladies League Mumbai Women of the Decade Achievers Award on 2 January 2014.
In 2011, Kochhar was awarded the "ABLF Woman of Power Award (India)" at the Asian Business Leadership Forum Awards. Kochhar was ranked as the most powerful businesswoman in India in Forbes' list of 'The World's 100 Most Powerful Women 2013'. Kochhar was also featured in the Power List 2013 of 25 most powerful women in India by India Today, for the third year in a row.
Kochhar was selected in Time Magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World 2015. In 2015, she was ranked first in the Fortune List of 100 Most Powerful Women in Asia Pacific. Kochhar ranked 40th on India Today’s ‘High and Mighty Power List 2016’ in 2016.In the same year, she was 22nd in the Forbes Asia’s ‘50 Power Businesswomen List 2016’. In 2017, Kochhar was featured in Business World magazine's ‘BW's Most Influential Women’ list as an evergreen woman leader.