It is a great honour for all of us at the Reserve Bank of India to have the Honourable Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh ji, our former Governor, to release the History of the Reserve Bank and to inaugurate the Centre for Advanced Financial Learning. Both the actions are very fitting since the History goes up to the time that the Prime Minister assumed office as Governor; and the inauguration of the Centre marks a forward looking approach to the development of the financial sector as a whole. If I may take the liberty of adding a personal note; It was Dr Manmohan Singh who first, welcomed me at the Planning Commission in 1980, after I had spent 16 years abroad, and again as Deputy Chairman in 1986. Sir, I am therefore glad to have the opportunity of welcoming you here at the Reserve Bank. May I on behalf of everyone in the Reserve Bank family express our deep gratitude for this gracious gesture of visiting us and marking these landmarks in our development?

The compilation of this year's volume of Currency and Finance has been among the most difficult tasks that our staff has faced. We are therefore deeply grateful to the Finance Minister, Shri P. Chidambaram, for agreeing to release this volume, the first time ever that a Finance Minister has done. Thank you very much indeed sir.

It is seldom that we have the pleasure of hosting the Honourable Governor Shri S M Krishna and the Honourable Chief Minister Shri Vilasrao Deshmukh of the state that we are located in: We appreciate very much that you have taken the time out to be with us on this momentous occasion for the Reserve Bank. It means a lot to us that you are with us today.

We are delighted that our former Governors, Shri M. Narasimham, Shri S Venkitramanan, Dr C Rangarajan and Dr Bimal Jalan, are with us today. Thank you very much for taking the trouble to travel all the way to Mumbai today. We are particularly grateful to Dr Rangarajan for having steered the compilation of the History, through many difficult times. Without his guidance we would not be here today. I would also like to thank Dr A. Vasudevan, Ms C Batlivala and TCA Srinivasa Raghavan for all the contributions that they made, along with the staff of the Reserve Bank History Cell in compiling the history.

I would also take this opportunity of commending all my staff in the Department of Economic Analysis and Policy for all the arduous work involved in preparing this year's edition of Report on Currency and Finance.

We have been greatly assisted by the Advisory Committee on the BTC, led by Dr R. H Patil. Many thanks for your selfless service and for coming up with the concept of the Centre for Advanced Financial Learning. I hope that we will live up to your expectations.

I would like to thank all the esteemed guests who have graced this occasion.

Finally, may I commend all the staff of the Reserve Bank who have worked so hard in making this function a success, members of staff of the PMO, and all the state officials and staff of security agencies who have helped us greatly.