ISAS Briefs

The State Bank of India's latest merger of five of its subsidiaries with itself raises India's profile in the global banking sector. Within India, however, it is not yet clear whether this step marks the beginning of a game plan for consolidating public sector banking through further mergers. Nonetheless, the government needs to follow up by creating four or five banks of comparable size to be able to compete with the SBI. The dynamics of that game plan have to be shaped by the SBI experience while its timing has to be determined by the resolution of the problem of non-performing assets.