Chandra Shekhar Ghosh

Chandra Shekhar Ghosh
Chandra Shekhar Ghosh
Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Chandra Shekhar Ghosh has been one of India's foremost proponents of financial inclusion. He has more than three decades of experience in microfinance, banking and development terrain.
'Bandhan' is the name of the not-for-profit entity that Mr. Ghosh had set up in April 2001, with the objective of changing the lives of the underprivileged by giving them small loans and handholding them in their entrepreneurial journey. The entity transformed from an NGO to an NBFC in April 2006, and finally into a universal bank in August 2015. This is the first instance of a microfinance institution transforming into a universal bank in India.


The ethos of inclusive banking drives Mr. Ghosh. Under Mr. Ghosh’s leadership, the Bank, with a pan-India presence, caters to more than 3.17 crore customers and has more than 74,000 employees on its payroll as of September 30, 2023.


Among the numerous awards that Mr. Ghosh has won, the prominent ones include the following –

  • Lifetime Achievement Award at India’s Best Bank Awards 2023 by Financial Express 

  • ‘Banker of the Year’ for 2018-19 by Business Standard

  • CNN-IBN ‘Indian of the Year’ in 2016 in the Business category 

  • 'Entrepreneur with Social Impact' 2014 by Forbes India Leadership Awards

  •  ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ 2014 by The Economic Times 

  • 'Senior Ashoka Fellow' – social entrepreneurship award – in 2007 by Ashoka Foundation 

Mr. Ghosh holds a master’s degree in Statistics. He has attended the HBS-ACCION Program on Strategic Leadership at Harvard Business School.


Besides being the former Chairman of The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Eastern Region, and the former President of Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCC&I), he is also associated with various other industry bodies. Some of them are:

  • Member, Sectoral Committee on Private Sector Banks, Indian Banks' Association (IBA) 

  • Member, Corporate Governance Council, CII

  • Co-Chair, Financial Inclusion Committee, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) 

  • Member of Committee on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector, Government of West Bengal 

  • Member of College Advisory Committee (CAC) in College of Agriculture Banking (CAB), Pune

  • Distinguished Invitee on the Council of Management, All India Management Association (AIMA) 

  • Member, Expert Committee on repositioning the Microfinance Programme, Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI)