The zonal round of the inaugural edition of the RBI Policy Challenge - a national level competition by the Reserve Bank of India to further the spread of knowledge regarding financial, monetary and banking matters among the student community - will be held on March 09, 2016, the Reserve Bank of India announced. The zonal rounds will be held among the winning teams of the regional round. The results of the regional rounds were announced on February 29, 2016 by various regional offices of the Reserve Bank for their respective centres. (Click here for consolidated centre-wise results)

Building on the success of RBIQ – an annual quiz competition covering school students – the RBI Policy Challenge targets under graduate and post graduate students of any discipline in any of the reputed State/Central Universities or institutes of excellence, such as, the IITs, IIMs, etc. It is an annual three-tier competition that will test essay-writing, problem solving and presentational skills of the participants in a competitive format.

Rolled out in January 2016, the competition has three rounds – regional, zonal and national. The regional round, already conducted by the Reserve Bank’s regional offices, involved writing of an essay on a given topic by the students in groups of 3 or 4 guided by a faculty adviser. Team writing the best essay, as evaluated by expert(s), will now compete in the zonal round. The zonal round involves making a presentation by the winners of regional competition on their approach to a real-life problem based on a monetary/economic issue given in advance before a panel of experts. For the national round to be held in Mumbai in April 2016, a monetary policy related topic would be assigned to all teams in the forenoon and they would be required to make a 15-minute presentation in the afternoon before a select panel headed by the Reserve Bank Governor. The team adjudged the best would be declared the winners.

The winning team would be awarded a running trophy and a cash prize of rupees one lakh. The members of the winning team would also be given the opportunity to intern with the Reserve Bank for a period of three months in a department of their choice. Team placed second would win a cash prize of ₹ 50,000/- plus a trophy while the other national finalist teams would win a cash prize of ₹ 25,000/-. The winners of the regional and zonal competitions would be awarded a cash prize of ₹ 10,000/- and ₹ 15,000/-, respectively.

Alpana Killawala
Principal Adviser

Press Release : 2015-2016/2057