Published Paper Details:

Between 2019 and 2024, State Bank of India achieved a significant improvement in asset quality and profitability. It cleaned up one of the biggest bad-loan piles in global banking history and came out profitable, growing, and arguably stronger than it had been in a decade. This paper looks at how that happened. We examine the asset quality data across those five years, trace the risk management interventions that drove the recovery, and try to make sense of what the SBI story actually tells us about banking reforms in India. The paper draws on published financial statements, Reserve Bank of India reports, and a body of academic literature on non-performing assets (NPAs), credit risk, and bank turnaround strategies. The findings suggest that the recovery was not accidental. It came from a combination of regulatory pressure, internal governance reforms, improved credit appraisal, and a macroeconomic environment that at least from 2022 onward cooperated. But questions remain about sustainability, especially in a slowing credit cycle.