Indian banks' NPA woes: Privatisation no solution; stronger watchdog maybe?

Propping up bloated and inefficient state lenders would seem to ensure a repeat of the current crisis

To many economists, the solution to India’s bad-loan crisis appears as obvious as the problem: Privatize state-owned banks, which have racked up billions more in soured loans and performed much worse than their private-sector counterparts. Yet, unless the government first strengthens its ability to supervise all banks, public and private, selling some of them off will be slim guarantee against another crisis.

One can understand the urge to privatize. A long-mooted bankruptcy law finally passed last year allows any single creditor to initiate the bankruptcy process. This has disrupted the earlier cozy system, whereby banks hid the full extent of