State Bank of India

State Bank of India (SBI) (LSE: SBID) is a Public Sector Banking Organisation (PSB), in which the Government of India is the biggest shareholder. It is the largest bank in India and is ranked at 380 in 2008 Fortune Global 500 list, and ranked 219 in 2008 Forbes Global 2000. Measured by the number of branch offices, SBI is the second largest bank in the world. SBI traces its ancestry back to the Bank of Calcutta, which was established in 1806; this makes SBI the oldest commercial bank in the Indian subcontinent. SBI provides various domestic, international and NRI products and services, through its vast network in India and overseas. With an asset base of $126 billion and its reach, it is a regional banking behemoth.

In recent years the bank has focused on four priorities, first, reducing its huge staff through the Golden handshake scheme known as the Voluntary Retirement Scheme, second, computerizing its operations, third, implementation of Business Process Re-Engineering(BPR), and fourth, trying to change the rude attitude of its staff through a program aptly named 'Parivartan' or 'change'. On the whole, the Bank has been successful in the first three initiatives but has failed in Parivartan.