Non-Performing Assets in Indian Banks: This Time it is Different

Growing non-performing assets is a recurrent problem in the Indian banking sector. Over the past two decades, there have been two such episodes when the banking sector was severely impaired by balance sheet problems. This paper does a comparative analysis of the two banking crisis episodes-the one in the late 1990s and one that started in the aftermath of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and is yet to be resolved. The paper describes the macroeconomic and banking environment preceding the episodes, the degree and nature of the crises and also discusses the policy responses that have been undertaken. It concludes by drawing policy lessons from this discussion and suggest some measures that can be adopted to better deal with a future balance sheet related crisis in the banking sector such that the impact on the real economy is minimal.