49 SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF SELECTED PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR BANKS IN INDIA AND ITS IMPACT ON NPA LEVEL Tarak Nath Sahu Assistant Professor, Dept. of Commerce with Farm Management, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore, West Bengal, E-mail: taraknathsahu1@rediffmail.com Jayanta Kumar Nandi Assistant Professor, Department of Commerce, Ghatal Rabindra Satabarsiki Mahavidyalaya, Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal, India, E-mail: jayantanandi1@gmail.com ABSTRACT In this study, it has been tried to analyse the comparative performance of selected public and private sector banks in India during the period 2001-02 to 2011-12 on the basis of their direct and indirect contributions to the society for socio-economic growth and its impact on quality of assets or NPA level of the banks. For this purpose ten leading Indian banks from each of the public and private sector banks have been taken into consideration. Findings of the study indicate that the performance of the private sector banks is better from the bankers’ viewpoints but from the social viewpoints, the selected public sector banks are better performers. Key Words: Public and Private Sector Banks, Social Responsibility, NPA AN OVERVIEW Financial intermediaries are going through significant changes all over the world under the impact of deregulation, technological up gradation and financial innovations. The traditional and conservative face of Indian banking has undergone a metamorphosis due to the effect of liberalization, reorganization and consolidation. In the deregulated environment, a series of reformative measures were undertaken to improve the working of Indian banks in line with the international banking practices and the emergence of new private sector banks as well as the entry of new foreign banks has thrown tremendous challenges in front of the Indian public sector banks. As a result it is observed that in regard to the survival and growth, the public sector banks are facing fierce competition with new and old private sector banks. The public sector banks were mainly formed with the objective of facilitating socio-economic growth of the Indian masses. Bank credit is a catalyst to the economic growth of a country and any bottleneck in the smooth flow of credit creates adverse repercussions in the economy but the high level of NPAs (Non-Performing Assets) in banks has been a matter of great concern and a barrier to accelerate bank financing and to fulfill their objectives. In this competitive age the only banks with high level of financial performance and credit recovery management will survive and grow on long term perspectives. The major role of banks has been transformed as prime mover of economic change, particularly in developing countries like India. It is necessarily more complex in view of dynamic contribution expected from time to time in the challenging task of optimum economic growth. Over decades