The State Bank Of India: A Progressive Study Of Transformation Of A Socialistic Welfare Organization Into A Market Entity | Parul Goyal, Kirti Sharma & Vinnie Jauhari

The State Bank of India (SBI) is one of the oldest banks in India. Primarily set up as a financial institution to take care of interests of the traders, this bank had to undergo basic changes in order to cater to the needs of independent India. As was the requirement of a newly independent country, SBI focused primarily on development issues for the under privileged and rural development. This bank also became the facilitator for the development of the industrial infrastructure of the country. The bank had to radically change in 1991, when the country faced acute financial stress. This paper compares the bank?s performance on international performance parameters (pre 1991 and post 1991 figures) in order to understand the changes the bank had to undergo to adjust to the new circumstances. We have also compared the current performance figures with two other banks to understand the bank and its activities with those of peer banks.