State Bank of India is the country's leading state bank, while HDFC Bank is the leading private sector lender. Rekha Menon profiles the top five banks in each field to assess how they are operating within this notoriously difficult but potentially lucrative market.
With a significant unbanked population and the world's second largest number of mobile connections, India is a prime market for mobile banking. But, unlike other mobile banking markets, it is adopting a bank-led rather than telecommunications-led approach, with the largest institutions already rolling out services and the country's regulator keen to use it as a tool to improve financial inclusion.
In response to pressure from the Reserve Bank of India, Indian banks have made huge investments in modernising their IT infrastructure during the past 10 years. But there is still much work to be done, particularly around customer relationship management, payments and financial inclusion. Writer Rekha Menon
India's leading exchange, the NSE, faces new competition as the MCX-SX plans to enter the equities trading arena. Yet the battle is broadly welcomed by the country's banking industry, which anticipates it will bring the product innovation needed to strengthen the sector on a global level. Writer Rekha Menon