Aditya Puri trumps Mukesh Ambani, voted best CEO

MUMBAI: HDFC Bank Managing Director Aditya Puri has been voted as the best CEO of India, leaving behind Reliance Industries's Mukesh Ambani, as per the Finance Asia magazine's annual poll of investors and analysts.

Puri beat peers like Infosys Technology's Kris Gopalakrishnan, Bharti Airtel's Manoj Kohli and Reliance Industries Managing Director Mukesh Ambani to take the top spot in this year's poll, HDFC Bank said in a statement.

Hong Kong-based Finance Asia conducts the annual poll to find Asia's top companies in different categories, including Best CEO, it said.

In the best managed company category, HDFC Bank came third while in corporate governance category, the bank was ranked second after Infosys Technologies.

In the backdrop of the economic gloom all over, last 12 months have been tough for Indian CEOs. However, Puri has proven himself by keeping the bank largely insulated from the fallout of the slowdown, the statement added.

For the year ended March 31, 2009, HDFC Bank posted a 41 per cent rise in its net profit at Rs 2,245 crore.