“The great turnaround : How public sector banks became most profitable in India”, First Post, August 17, 2023:
“Public sector banks have rarely had it so good. The State Bank of India reported a jump in profit of 178 per cent in the first quarter of the current financial year. This now makes SBI the most profitable company in India, ahead of Reliance Industries. Other public sector banks have done similarly well. Together, their profits touched nearly Rs 35,000 crore, which is more than double the amount in the same period last year. And that is only in one quarter. For the full financial year 2022-23, public sector banks made profits of over Rs 1 lakh crore.
These numbers might surprise people who remember earlier this year, when the opposition protested in parliament and on the streets to “Save SBI.” Save SBI from what? Making record profits? They also said “Save LIC.” Well, in the first quarter of this year, profits at LIC are up 14 times! This comes on the back of an already brilliant performance in the financial year 2022-23, when there was a nine fold increase in profits over the year before that.
But it was not always like this. Let us go back for a moment to 2013-14. Everyone knew that public sector banks were sitting on bad loans, but hidden in accounting tricks. That this could happen under the watch of Dr. Manmohan Singh, an economist by training, was no less than shocking…..”
Read the full article at Firstpost.com
