Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) have been the main theme of Padmaja Chunduru’s career. She was heading SBI’s Diamond Branch in 2008 when the global financial crisis ravaged the export-oriented diamond business. She prevented cave-in of the industry while controlling the impact on the bank’s asset quality. The merger of Indian Bank with Allahabad Bank in the midst of pandemic, now a case study published by Harvard Business School, has been perhaps her most unique challenge so far. As MD & CEO of Indian Bank, she steered the merger with minimum disruption. Padmaja’s shift from banking to NSDL, a technology-heavy organisation, seems to have come at an opportune moment. Capital markets are going through an explosion in transactions similar to what banking went through a few years back via Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile trinity. Padmaja, who handled the change management process in banking, is excited about the opportunities this has opened up for NSDL. The company recently launched the Debenture Security and Covenant Monitoring system on the DLT (Blockchain) platform. It is also developing new products for expanding the bond market and dematerialisation of other asset classes. — Rajiv Ranjan Singh