Engines of Economic Growth
The Indian banking sector has staged a dramatic turnaround of late. From a loss of about ₹23,400 crore in FY19, the banking sector turned in a record combined profit of ₹1.82 lakh crore in FY22. This smart somersault has been accompanied by a cleaning up of its books—gross non-performing assets have almost halved to 5 per cent or so from 2018, and the provisioning coverage ratio has moved up to more than 70 per cent. Under the watchful eye of the Reserve Bank of India, banks are now raring to grow, and grow fast. This clean-up could not have come a day too soon. India is on a growth path despite global headwinds, the government has loosened its purse strings to boost capital expenditure in the hope that private investment…