As you are aware, there has been phenomenal increase in the number of credit cards issued by the banks in India during the last few years and a majority of the PSBs has been in the credit card business since long. The number of credit cards outstanding at the end of June 2008 was 27.02 million as against 24.39 million in June 2007.
And, of course, reduced tax revenues, associated with the recession, have added substantially to the problem. Both financial system support and fiscal stimulus were necessary, since the alternative would have been much worse. When private sector spending was no longer sufficient to support growth, governments had to step in to fill the gap.