Health & Fitness
Naina Lal Kidwai didn't just survive Indian banking — she built it. In this conversation, the former HSBC India Chairman walks through the decisions, the crises, and the costs behind one of the most consequential careers in Indian financial history.
She was in the room when NSE was conceptualised — because BSE refused to change. She was CEO of HSBC India during the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, managing hostages, bullet wounds, and panicking families from her office while keeping every single one of her employees alive. She introduced the 5-day work week to Indian banking when the RBI called to question her judgment. She was FICCI President the year Nirbhaya happened and had to represent India to the world at its worst moment.
This is also the story behind the story — the first Indian woman at Harvard Business School, the first woman hired by PricewaterhouseCoopers, and the first woman to head a foreign bank anywhere in the world. What it took to walk into every room that had never seen a woman. What it cost to be first at everything, every single time.
In this episode:
- The 26/11 night she made life and death calls using a secret code from the DG of Police, and got every employee out alive
- How she received her husband's cancer diagnosis mid-town hall, composed herself in seconds, and finished the speech
- How she introduced India's 5-day work week to banking when the RBI called to question her about it
- Why she was the first woman at Harvard, PwC, and HSBC, and found out about each one after the fact
- What it meant to be first, and why one failure would have shut the door for every woman who came after her
- How she helped write India's insider trading laws before SEBI even existed
- Why she was FICCI president when Nirbhaya happened and had to defend India to every foreign delegation that year
- How anger, not ambition, was the real engine behind every barrier she broke
- The one networking principle that saved a life during 26/11
- What success quietly took from her, and whether she would do it all again
Watch till the end for what she says success quietly took from her, and whether she would do it all again.