SAVE MONEY ON TRAVEL DEALS

India lacks a "golf-playing, beer-drinking homogeneous culture", said Naina Lal Kidwai, an HSBC director who is the former head of Morgan Stanley's investment business in India, The New York Times reported Thursday.

Taking out some of the boys-club expectations, bankers in India are more apt to be judged on merits, the Times reported.

As such, in India, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, UBS and the Royal Bank of Scotland are led by women, as are the investment banking divisions at Kotak Mahindra and JPMorgan Chase. The second and third largest banks in the country, Icici and Axis are run by women. Half of the policy makers at India's central bank are also women, the Times said.

Given the size of the country, many of the women executives in India oversee larger operations and more employees than bank operations in other countries.

Banks are one industry where numbers clearly delineate who deserves a promotions, but the pressure on women is still a factor.

"Always, that is a given. It was very clear we had to perform better and work harder", Kidwai said.

 BREAKING STORIES

Crude oil prices settle overnight

Stereotype of frequent ER visitor untrue

Safety net hospitals say reform essential

Junk food to be tossed out of U.S. schools

Oil prices ignore OPEC news

Grain futures mixed as dollar makes gains

U.S. firm guilty in oil-for-food fraud

Police: Ex-worker disabled cars via Web

Chickens found wandering Pittsburgh campus

Money laundering to cost Wachovia $160M

Pine beetles threaten N. American forestry

Man crashes while trying to elude IRS

U.S. mortgage interest rates up slightly

Bulgaria bans genetically modified crops

Va. to challenge reform constitutionality

Ex-vegan target of 'pie assault'

Bernanke pitches for strong Fed

Bernanke pitches for strong Fed

Crude oil prices close to $83 per barrel

Saab to put U.S. headquarters in Michigan