Published Paper Details:

The persistent challenge of non-performing assets (NPAs) has had a profound impact on the financial stability and profitability of the Indian banking sector. This study undertakes a comparative analysis of NPAs and key performance indicators--net profit margin (NPM) and net interest margin (NIM) between selected public sector banks (SBI, UBI, Canara Bank) and private sector banks (ICICI, HDFC, Axis Bank) over the five-year period from FY 2021 to FY 2025. The results reveal that private sector banks consistently outperform public sector banks in terms of NPM and NIM, with significant statistical differences across most years. While public sector banks have shown improvement in managing NPAs, the gap in asset quality remains significant in the later years of the study. Furthermore, regression findings confirm a strong negative relationship between NPAs and both NPM and NIM, underscoring the critical role of asset quality in financial performance.