State Bank of India, the country's top lender, said on Saturday that its board had approved a capital injection of 30.04 billion rupees by the government through preferential allotment of shares in the current fiscal year.

The funds will be used to support local and international banking operations, and the bank is seeking separate approvals from the government and India's central bank to raise its issued capital, SBI said in a statement to the stock exchanges.

The Reserve Bank of India said in September that the government needed to inject 900 billion rupees into state-run banks to meet the upcoming Basel III requirements.