1. Distinguished panellists - Prof. Randall S. Kroszner, Professor, University of Chicago and Former Governor, Federal Reserve Board; Ms. Emmanuelle Assouan, Director General, Financial Stability and Operations, Banque de France; Ms. Sarah Breeden, Deputy Governor for Financial Stability, Bank of England; Dr. Sajjid Chinoy, Managing Director and Chief Economist India, JP Morgan; esteemed delegates and colleagues from the Reserve Bank. A very good afternoon to all of you.

The Context Over the past three and a half decades since the formal adoption of inflation targeting (IT), it has proliferated across continents, regardless of the position of host jurisdictions in the developmental ladder. By the turn of this century, it has been increasingly embraced by emerging market economies (EMEs) so much so that they now outnumber advanced economies (AEs) as practitioners. A unique feature of IT is its operationalisation even before the development of a formal theory2. The journey of IT has been tumultuous, navigating as it has the Great Moderation and ‘once in a century’ shocks such as the global financial crisis (GFC), the COVID-19 pandemic, and persisting geopolitical conflicts that have had a direct bearing on both inflation’s evolution and on financial conditions. Yet, there is no evidence of any major country abandoning it3. On the other hand, central banks have drawn lessons from these humungous challenges and innovated and refined their policy frameworks. The endogenous evolution of IT has rendered it the longest surviving monetary policy framework in modern times.

I feel highly privileged to be here at this High Level Conference on ‘Central Banking at Crossroads’ and share some of my thoughts. When the definitive history of our times is written, the turn of the current decade will, in all probability, be regarded as a watershed in the evolution of central banking. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the persistent geopolitical strife thereafter, central banks are treading in the uncharted terrain of a twilight zone. Today, like never before in the five centuries of their existence, central banks are confronted with a future where their mandates, their functions and their performances are all up for unforgiving scrutiny.

1. Chairpersons and Directors of the Boards of Small Finance Banks; Chief Executive Officers of SFBs; Executive Directors, Chief General Managers and colleagues from the Reserve Bank of India; ladies and gentlemen. A very good morning to all of you. 2. It is an honour to address this distinguished gathering in the inaugural conference of Board of Directors of Small Finance Banks organised by the RBI. As has been mentioned, this conference is in continuation of the Reserve Bank’s efforts to reach out to its supervised entities through a direct dialogue with their Boards and Top Management. Our objective is to reaffirm the importance of good governance for maintaining financial stability and fostering sustainable growth.

1. Regional Director of RBI for Karnataka, Smt. Sonali Sen Gupta; Chief General Manager, NABARD, Shri KVSSLV Prasada Rao; Chief General Manager, Canara Bank and Convenor, SLBC Karnataka, Shri K.J. Shrikanth; Area Heads of Union Bank of India and Bank of Baroda, senior executives from banks; Lead District Managers (LDMs); District Development Managers (DDMs); LDOs and other officers of RBI, present here. Ellarigu Namaskara and a very good morning to all.

I am delighted to have been invited by the Nepal Rashtra Bank (NRB) to deliver the inaugural Himalaya Shumsher Memorial Lecture. I deem it as a privilege. I place on record my appreciation of the Nepal Rashtra Bank for initiating this lecture series in honour of Shri Himalaya Shumsher Rana, the first governor of NRB from1956 to 1961. He contributed immensely to the development of Nepalese monetary and financial systems. His efforts laid the foundation for many of Nepal's key financial institutions and contributed significantly to the country's economic development. Nepal and India have enjoyed a long standing relationship that goes back into history. It is not just a relationship between the two countries, it is also a close people to people relationship. The Nepal Rashtra Bank and the Reserve Bank of India also share a close relationship based on mutual co-operation.

1. Distinguished Guests, Dr R. C. Agrawal, Deputy Director General, Indian Council for Agricultural Research; Dr Sunil Gorantiwar, former Director of Research, Agricultural University , Rahuri; Principal, CAB; senior officials from Financial and Academic Institutions; colleagues from RBI; ladies and gentlemen. A very good morning to all of you.

I am happy to participate in the third annual conference of the Bretton Woods Committee’s Future of Finance Forum. The conference brings together leaders and experts from the public and private sectors, multilateral institutions and think tanks to deliberate on emerging issues, trends and technologies in the financial sector. This comprehensive horizon scanning can enrich decision making and help to fashion strategies for exploiting opportunities, managing risks and building future resilience. Against this backdrop, I propose to focus on the global financial stability landscape and the evolving balance of risks and opportunities beyond the current macro-economic environment. 

I am happy to be back at the FIBAC annual conference. This conference is special as it brings together industry leaders, financial sector players and regulators on a single platform to discuss vital issues of contemporary relevance. I would like to congratulate the FICCI and the IBA for organising this annual conference.

1. Shri V Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Advisor, Ms. Shereen Bhan, Managing Editor, CNBC TV 18, Ms. Latha Venkatesh, Executive Editor CNBC TV 18, Managing Directors & Chief Executive Officers of Banks and Non-Banking Financial Companies, leaders from the Fintech industry, distinguished guests, ladies, and gentlemen. A very good evening to all of you.

2. I am indeed delighted to be present here amongst you today to speak to you about the evolving banking landscape and the imperative need to build and sustain financial sector resilience if India is to achieve her aspirations of becoming a developed economy by 2047.

We are celebrating the 90th year of the Reserve Bank of India in the current financial year. This Global Conference on ‘Digital Public Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies’ is among the marquee events that we are organising to commemorate this significant milestone. It is my pleasure to extend a warm welcome to each one of you to this conference, held in the beautiful and vibrant city of Bengaluru—a city which, for many years now, has been at the forefront of India’s technology revolution. I would also like to extend a special welcome to the esteemed participants who have joined us from across the globe. Thank you all for accepting our invitation. I sincerely hope that you will find the deliberations and interactions during the Global Conference enriching and productive. 

Deputy Governor Swaminathan J, distinguished delegates from International Association of Deposit Insurers (IADI) and global deposit insurers, board members and officers of Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC), officers of RBI, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon to all of you. At the outset, I would like to thank IADI and DICGC for inviting me for delivering the valedictory address at the IADI Asia-Pacific Regional Committee International Conference being held in the beautiful city of Jaipur.

1. Distinguished Guests, Deputy Governor Dr Michael D Patra, Deputy Governor Shri M R Rao, Board of Directors of DICGC, colleagues from DICGC and RBI, ladies, and gentlemen. A very good morning to all of you. 2. It is, indeed, an honour to address this distinguished gathering of global deposit insurers. Deposit insurers, as vital pillars of the financial safety-net system, play a crucial role in bolstering public confidence in the banking sector and fostering overall financial stability. My compliments to the organizers of this Conference—the International Association of Deposit Insurers (IADI), which has excelled as a global standard-setter, the Asia Pacific Regional Committee (APRC), and the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC)—for their exemplary efforts in bringing this event to fruition.

Mr. Alejandro Lopez, President, International Association of Deposit Insurance (IADI), Dr. Eva Hupkes, Secretary General, IADI, Mr. M. Rajeshwar Rao, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), distinguished representatives of the IADI and the Asia Pacific Regional Committee (APRC) Secretariat, chief executive officers (CEOs) and officials of deposit insurance agencies, delegates from central banks, eminent speakers and panellists, invitees representing banks in India, and my colleagues from the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), good morning to you all.

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, At the outset, let me thank the organisers for inviting me to deliver this address and convey my thoughts at this prestigious event. We, as central bankers, interact with various stakeholders on different occasions and diverse gatherings like this provide us an opportunity to reflect on issues which straddle not just the world of finance but also impinges on wider scheme of things. The idea is to flag issues which have wider ramifications beyond the conventional financial risks. Therefore, while I would dwell upon the Indian financial outlook, I would like to avail of this opportunity also to discuss on the issue of climate change and the role of financial entities in the transition process towards a more sustainable growth.

Ladies and gentlemen, a very good morning, I am happy to be here this morning and engage with you at this forum. Keeping in view the theme of the event, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss a few issues around the risk, compliance and internal audit, collectively known as assurance functions, as they help identify and manage risks for sustainable growth of financial entities. From a regulatory and supervisory perspective too, Reserve Bank attaches utmost important to the assurance function and therefore, to ensure that there is alignment between our perspectives and to communicate our expectations, we feel a continuing dialogue on this issue is extremely important.

I am happy to be back at the Financial Express Modern BFSI Summit. I remember having participated in the June 2022 edition of this summit where I had spoken on ‘Disruptions & Opportunities in the Financial Sector’. The macroeconomic conditions back then were very different and challenging to say the least, as we were grappling with overlapping shocks from the war in Ukraine and the surge in inflation at a time when the world was still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, we have come a long way. Amidst global challenges and uncertainties, India stands out as a fast growing major economy with stronger macroeconomic fundamentals and a healthy and resilient financial sector.

Shri Ajay Bhushan Prasad Pandey, Chairperson, National Financial Reporting Authority; Shri M R Rao, Deputy Governor Reserve Bank of India; Executive Directors from Reserve Bank of India; CA Ranjeet Agarwal, President Institute of Chartered Accountants of India; Auditors and Chief Financial Officers from the Banks and All India Financial Institutions; my colleagues from the Reserve Bank of India; Ladies and Gentlemen. Good morning.

I am delighted to be here today to convey my thoughts on the issue of statutory audit of commercial banks and AIFIs. In many ways, we, as Regulators/ Supervisors and you as Auditors, share a common goal. Auditors play a very crucial role in ensuring the health of the financial system as they assist in maintainance of regulatory oversight by ensuring that the financial statements present a true and fair picture of the affairs of the regulated entity. The statutory auditors play a significant role in maintaining stakeholder confidence in audited financial statements and this is particularly important in the case of banking industry where the entire edifice is built on ‘trust’ and the biggest external stakeholders, i.e., depositors are fragmented and unorganised. Therefore, the Reserve Bank has a strong interest in promoting sound and high quality accounting and disclosure standards for the banking and financial industry as well as in having transparent and comparable financial statements that strengthen market discipline

Mr. V G Sekhar, Principal, CAB, Convenors of SLBCs, my colleagues from RBI, ladies and gentlemen. A very good afternoon to you all.

1. I am delighted to address you all today, the conveners of all our SLBCs. I understand that you all had a very purposeful engagement over these two days, dwelling upon various strategies and approaches that we plan to adopt in achieving our goal of strengthening credit delivery for an inclusive and sustainable growth. Having been once the Convenor for the SLBC in Telangana in my earlier role as a commercial banker, I can first-hand attest to the immense personal satisfaction it gives to make a difference in people’s lives through the SLBC forum. Indeed, over the years SLBCs have emerged as important instruments of change by catalysing synergies among stakeholders. Through the efforts made under the aegis of SLBCs across 

I am deeply honoured to participate in the 79th meeting of the Executive Council (EXCO) of the International Association of Deposit Insurers (IADI). At the outset, I would like to express my profound appreciation for the IADI as a global standard-setter as well as an international forum for the cross-fertilisation of information and country experiences on practices and techniques relating to deposit insurance. The IADI is contributing significantly to building effective deposit insurance systems across the world, thereby strengthening public confidence in the banking system and ensuring financial stability.

Good Evening,

It is indeed a pleasure to be here amidst this distinguished gathering. The theme of the summit, ‘Rise of the Indian Spring’, is both contextual and inspiring, reflecting not just the rising trajectory and profile of the Indian economy, but also the sentiments prevailing within the country and across the world.

I am honoured to be invited to Nomura’s 40th Central Bankers Seminar. The discussions here assume topical relevance in the context of the tectonic shifts underway in the global economy that present new challenges for the conduct of central banking. Besides divergent growth pathways and the varying speeds and magnitudes of disinflation, regime shifts impart their own layers of uncertainty.

Mr. Yoshiki Takeuchi, Deputy Secretary General, OECD, Ms. Mairead McGuiness, European Commissioner for Financial Services, Ms. Magda Bianco, Chair of OECD INFE and G20 GPFI, Mr. Connor Graham, youth representative from Enactus, assembled regulators from across the world, ladies and gentlemen. A very warm good morning to all of you.  It gives me immense pleasure to speak to you today on a highly relevant topic - safe banking

Honourable Governors, Deputy Governors, Managing Directors, delegations from SEACEN central banks, distinguished experts, and panellists, Dr. Mangal Goswami and the SEACEN team, and my colleagues from the Reserve Bank of India.

On behalf of the Reserve Bank of India, the current Chair of the SEACEN (South East Asian Central Banks) forum, I extend a warm welcome to Governors of central banks and other delegates to this 59th SEACEN Governors’ Conference. The weather in Mumbai during this time of the year is pleasant and I hope you get some time for sightseeing. As everyone in this hall is aware, SEACEN plays a pivotal role in promoting collaboration, knowledge sharing and policy coordination among the member central banks, and thereby contributes significantly to the stability, resilience and sustainable development of the regional and the global economy.

Ladies and Gentlemen! It’s a pleasure to be here at CII NBFC Summit 2024. At the outset, let me thank Mr. Abhimanyu Munjal, Chairman, CII National Committee on Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs) for extending the invitation to me for delivering this inaugural talk at the 6th edition of the NBFC summit organised by CII. I recall that it was at this forum, in earlier speech2 at CII NBFC Summit held in October 2021, I had dwelt upon the introduction of Scale Based Regulatory (SBR) approach in the NBFC Sector. Much water has flown under the bridge since then. SBR framework has since been rolled out for the NBFC sector and NBFCs have seamlessly transitioned to the revised regulations. While I had previously discussed the detailed contours of the SBR framework, today I propose to discuss the broad regulatory approaches behind NBFC regulations, including SBR framework and then focus on few specific issues pertaining to NBFC sector.

Introduction Good morning and a warm welcome to all colleagues from central banks representing the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

Director, CAFRAL, Shri B P Kanungo; Shri N S Vishwanathan former Deputy Governor RBI, Smt. Indrani Banerjee, Additional Director CAFRAL, Shri Diwakar Gupta, Senior Advisor, CAFRAL, distinguished guests from the financial fraternity; and ladies and gentlemen. I am delighted to be present here at this very topical Conference on Resolution of Stressed Assets and Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code – the Future Road Map. The IBC notified in May 2016 introduced a comprehensive legislation that introduced a paradigm shift in the landscape of insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings in India, bringing in a more structured, institutionalised and time-sensitive approach to resolving financial distress.

Chief Compliance Officers, Chief Risk Officers, Heads of Internal Audit, colleagues from the Reserve Bank of India, Ladies, and Gentlemen. A happy New Year and good afternoon to all of you. I am delighted to address you today as we gather for this inaugural conference of Heads of Assurance functions. Last year, in our engagements with the Boards of both Public and Private Sector Banks, Governor had emphasized the importance of independence of assurance functions as well as their right to constructively challenge business functions for establishing a strong compliance and risk culture.  Indeed, this conference today is a testament to the significant importance the Reserve Bank attaches to the assurance functions in the context of safeguarding financial integrity and promoting regulatory compliance.

I am very happy to be here at this Conference on Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016 organised by the Centre for Advanced Financial Research and Learning (CAFRAL). I wish to congratulate CAFRAL for taking this initiative and thank them for inviting me to this event.

I am extremely delighted to be here this morning at the Mint BFSI Summit. I would like to thank the organisers, Mint, for inviting me to this event. Incidentally, I had also participated in a similar event - Mint Annual Banking Conclave - in February 2020.

(Remarks delivered virtually by Shri M. Rajeshwar Rao, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India – December 22, 2023 - at the 106th Annual Conference of Indian Economic Association in Delhi)

Chairman, State Bank of India Shri Dinesh Khara and my fellow colleagues from the banking fraternity, ladies, and gentlemen. 1.A very warm good morning to all of you. I am delighted to be here at the 10th edition of the SBI Banking & Economics Conclave, surrounded by industry leaders from banking and financial sectors, leading economists, policy makers, and other stakeholders. This marquee event provides a platform for discussing pertinent issues, sharing insights, and exploring potential solutions for the industry. In a lighter vein, after being a part of its host institution in its past nine editions, I now have the honour of being invited to speak at this prestigious event! I am extremely grateful to Chairman Shri Khara for extending this invitation. 

Distinguished guests, Good evening. First of all, let me thank the Indian Banking Association (IBA) and FICCI for inviting me over to deliver this address today. It’s a pleasure to be here amidst such a gathering of important stakeholders across the spectrum of our financial landscape. In a very short span of time, FIBAC has achieved a prominent status for being a premier brainstorming event on emerging themes of relevance to the financial world.