The best banks, across categories and key parameters

By pacing itself and keeping an eye on all aspects of its performance, Bank of Baroda has won the race.

Even as we raise a toast to the winners of the BT-KPMG Best Banks Survey of 2011, we need to take note of the many challenges that lie ahead. FULL COVERAGE ALSO SEE:  Videos | Winners in pics

Proving the pessimists wrong, banks have produced better profitability than expected, achieved better credit growth than was projected by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Non-performing assets of state-owned banks have increased marginally to 2.31 per cent as on March 2011, over the previous fiscal, Parliament was informed on Tuesday.

State-owned Bank of Baroda posts a 20 per cent jump in net profit to Rs 1,032.8 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2011.

The public sector lender reported a 2.4 per cent dip in net profit to Rs 354.7 crore for the quarter ended June 30, mainly on account of a rise in provisioning against bad assets.

Total income of the bank rose to Rs 7,098 crore at the end of the June quarter from Rs 5,410 crore in the same period last year, an increase of 31.2 per cent.

With the pan-India banking license the bank has raised its business volume target to Rs. 75,000 crore in 2016, from Rs. 28,000 crore currently.

India's largest lender registered its worst-ever performance in the fourth quarter of 2010-11 -  the net profit plunged 99 per cent to Rs 20.88 crore from Rs 1,867 crore last year. SBI took the body blow by not provisioning for non-performing assets in time.

The MFL offering opens for subscription on Monday and closes on Thursday (April 21). The issue, priced in the range of Rs 160-175 per share, aims at raising about Rs 900 crore.

Under the new RBI norms, both deposit and non-deposit taking NBFCs will have to set aside 0.25 per cent of performing loans to meet any financial exigencies.

Public sector banks dominate the best banks rankings, with a clutch of them making big gains.

The data for the study is based on the published annual reports of banks and the Reserve Bank of India's publication

CBI arrested CEO Ramachandran Nair and seven others, including three top officials of public sector banks, in connection with an alleged housing finance racket.

Getting a loan is more difficult now because rising bad debts have made banks cautious about lending. But borrowers with a clean credit profile can get good deals.

Corporate earnings are likely to fall this year. Money Today studies the top companies and sectors to examine their performance over the next few quarters.

Despite the rumours, Indian banks are unlikely to suffer much in this shakedown, thanks to ruthless regulations, says R. Sree Ram.

We scan through dozens of research reports to present you the six most relevant stock recommendations.

Foreign institutional investment has been three times more than Indian investment in stock markets.