Country's largest lender, State Bank of India (SBI) plans to hire more than 27,000

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people this year to fill its vacancies across different divisions, a top official said.

"This year we have plans to recruit 20,000-22,000 people in the clerical posts and 5,500 people at the probationary officer level," SBI Deputy Managing Director and Group Executive, Anup Banerji told reporters on the sidelines of Bancon conference here.

As part of its strategy of enhancing focus on rural operations, SBI plans to deploy 2,000 probationary officers in rural areas, Banerji said.

"We create a provision for appointing specialized probationary officers in the rural sector. Of the 5,500 POs, 2,000 of them will be recruited in rural sector and these officers will continue in rural marketing at least for next 10 years," he said.

Last year, State Bank had recruited around 25,000 people. The banking major also have plans to go for lateral recruitments in the middle-management level in the current year, Banerji said.

"This year we will start lateral recruitment at middle management level, from manager to Assistant General Manager level, where ever it is necessary," Banerji said.