Opening of Rural Planning and Credit Department at RBI, Panaji Office

Rural Planning and Credit Department has started functioning from today at the Reserve Bank of India office, Panaji. The Department, among other things, undertake financial inclusion and financial literacy initiatives as also look after implementation and monitoring of the Lead Bank Scheme. Its functional jurisdiction will cover the State of Goa. The address and contact details of the department are :

Reserve Bank of India
Rural Planning and Credit Department
3A/3B, Third Floor, Sesa Ghor
Patto, Panaji-403001
Tel No.0832 2438656
Fax No.0832 2438657

The Reserve Bank of India started functioning in Goa in 1983 when Goa was still a Union Territory. It catered to the foreign exchange needs of the people and institutions in the Union Territory of Goa.

RBI introduces Working Paper Series

The Reserve Bank of India today released two Working Papers on its website. These are:

Working Paper 1: An Empirical Analysis of the Relationship between Currency Futures and Exchange Rates Volatility in India by Somnath Sharma; and Working Paper 2: The Implications of Renminbi Revaluation on India’s Trade – A Study by S. Arunachalaramanan and Ramesh Golait. The Reserve Bank of India has decided to introduce a ‘RBI Working Paper Series’ (RBI - WP) to provide a platform to the Reserve Bank Staff for presenting their research studies as well as to receive feedback from informed researchers. One of the hallmarks of research in central banks is to sense the relevant developments and emerging challenges and provide quality research inputs for policy making. To be able to do this, the research studies should be on subjects linked with the goals and objectives of the central bank and should be conducted in a scientific way. With proactive and strategic role of the central bank staff, the research inputs could serve as necessary tools for scientific policy-making and efficient functioning of the central bank. The initiative to publish the Working Papers comes in the wake of encouraging the Reserve Bank staff to contribute towards such efforts.  The Reserve Bank has another research publication called the ‘Occasional Papers’. Research published in ‘Occasional Papers’ is work produced by the Staff of the Reserve Bank on a broad range of issues. Papers published under ‘Working Papers’ Series are quick analytical research papers on issues and challenges of contemporary relevance to the Reserve Bank. Unlike Occasional Papers, which are published with specific periodicity, RBI - WP Series will be published, as and when ready and in digitised form only. ‘DRG Studies’ is also another attempt to carry out an in-depth study on contemporaneous subjects. These are prepared under the auspices of Development Research Group (DRG) involving an outside expert leading an internal researchers’ team. The views expressed in all the research publications of the Reserve Bank, including the RBI Working Papers Series, do not necessarily reflect the views of the Reserve Bank and as such should not be reported as representing the views of the Reserve Bank of India. Feedback, if any, on the papers could be addressed to the respective authors of the research studies.

Expert view : Biggest challenge for Indian banking

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R Sridharan named Acting Chairman of SBI

Mumbai: R Sridharan will be taking over as Acting Chairman of the country's largest lender State Bank of India from O P Bhatt, who superannuated. Sridharan, who currently serves as the Managing Director and Group Executive (Associates and Subsidiaries) at the bank will take over as Acting Chairman from April 1, according to a source close to the development. He started his career in State Bank of India in 1972, the same year as Bhatt, and has been with the top lender throughout. Sridharan, a graduate from the University of Madras, had taken over his current position in December 2008.  The Ministry of Finance has reportedly zeroed in on Deputy Managing Director Pratip Chaudhuri as Bhatt's successor, but with a formal announcement not yet made, it has appointed an Acting Chairman.

Raghuram Rajan against corporate houses in banking

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FSDC’s efficacy yet to be tested, says RBI’s Mohanty

Mumbai: By setting up the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC), under the chairmanship of finance minister, the coordination mechanisms within the financial sector have been strengthened, said Deepak Mohanty, executive director, Reserve Bank of India (RBI). But, Mohanty added, that it is yet early to assess their efficacy which will be tested by future developments.  The recent experience of managing global financial crisis by central banks showed that conventional policy framework may not always be sufficient to deal with crisis, he said.  “The central banks have to be flexible enough and innovative in their policy approach to respond promptly to the build-up of sectoral imbalances,” said Mohanty, while participating in the Central Banks Conference of the Bank of Israel, Jerusalem on Friday.  He was speaking on ‘Lessons for Monetary Policy from the Global Financial Crisis : An Emerging Market Perspective’.  According to Mohanty the monetary policy frameworks in EMEs, mostly based on multiple indicators (in China, India and Russia) and multiple instruments were found to be more effective in responding to the crisis situation without being confronted with zero lower bound.  Liquidity management operations being an integral part of execution of monetary policy in EMEs, sequencing of policy measures in a combination of rate and quantity instruments proved to be more effective, he explained.  While interest rate continues to be the dominant instrument for implementing monetary policy, supplementing it by other quantity or macro-prudential instruments even in normal times will not only enhance the flexibility of monetary policy to attain multiple objectives but also could obviate the risk of hitting the zero lower bound, he said.  In the context of stability of the external sector, a key initiative could be to develop the local currency bond market.

5 crore special coins to mark 150 yrs of taxation

Five crore commemorative coins of Rs 5 denomination, unveiled recently to celebrate 150 years of taxation, will be minted for public distribution soon.  The coins, released by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on February 26, will be put in public domain and will be a collector's item. These will have no extra price, a senior Finance Ministry official said.  The special coin was unveiled along with a coin in the denomination of Rs 150 on the occasion of completion of 150 years of taxation and also of the Income Tax department from 1860 to 2010. The Rs 5 coin, made of an alloy of Silver, Copper, Nickel and Zinc, has an international design with 'Satyameva Jayate' and 'India' on the front and a portrait of 'Chanakya and lotus with honeybee' on the reverse. The Rs 150 coins will also be minted in the same fashion but only about 200 coins will be minted and would be available on request at a special price, he said. Earlier only 100 coins of Rs 5 were planned to be issued but the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the Income Tax department impressed upon the government the need to mint more such coins in public interest, he said.

Procedural irregularities hold up SBI chief’s appointment

The formal appointment of the State Bank of India (SBI) chairman has been delayed due to procedural irregularities in selection of the candidate proposed by the finance ministry.  The irregularities have been highlighted by Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar. He has written to the finance ministry, questioning Pratip Chaudhury’s selection for the top job at the country’s largest lender.  A senior government official told Business Standard . that Hemant Contractor’s name was on the top of the list during the selection of managing directors (MDs). However, for the chairman’s post, Chaudhury’s name was sent to the Cabinet Secretariat, he said. He added the cabinet secretary had asked the ministry to explain the reason for this change. The official said usually the names proposed by the finance ministry for top posts at public sector banks were cleared. But this was an unusual situation, he said. “A final decision is likely to be taken after the finance ministry’s explanation,” he said.  The panel to select the SBI chairman interviewed four deputy MDs – Hemant Contractor, Pratip Chaudhury, Diwakar Gupta and A Krishna Kumar.  The government has handed over the interim charge of the bank to Managing Director R Sridharan. O P Bhatt retired from the post yesterday after a five-year tenure.  Sridharan, whose is to retire four months from now, is likely to continue on the post till his term ends.  Sridharan was appointed as an MD in December 2008 and was looking after SBI’s associate banks and subsidiaries.  There have earlier instances of SBI being headed by an acting chairman. In 2006, when A K Purwar retired, one of the MDs, T S Bhattacharya, was given the interim charge.