Speeches & Media Interactions

What is your assessment of the economy? Growth impulses are gradually and steadily getting broad-based. The high-frequency indicators such as steel consumption, PMI for manufacturing and services are expanding, GST collections and e-way bills are showing improvement. Earlier, there was an impression that it was due to pent-up and festival demand. But now, it is genuine demand that is visible. The vaccination drive is giving greater confidence to consumers, so the dema

Edited Excerpts: Q: Let me start with the budget itself and this big borrowing programme, the four auctions after that have practically been either partially failed or fully failed. Do you think the bond market has not got your message, do you want to give a message to the bond market? A: If you go back into my monetary policy statements, right from October onwards – October and then again in February – I have given a very clear signal and explicit guidance to the bon

Participants from RBI: Shri Shaktikanta Das – Governor, Reserve Bank of India Shri B.P. Kanungo – Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India Shri M. K. Jain – Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India Dr. Michael D. Patra – Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India Shri M. Rajeshwar Rao – Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India Shri Yogesh Dayal – Chief General Manager, Reserve Bank of India Yogesh Dayal (Moderator): Good afternoon, all of you. I welcome the Governor and Deputy

Q1. Has it been an RBI throne or a crown with thorns? How has the two years been as RBI Governor? A: The position has been one of great responsibility. There have been two types of situations. It has been a great opportunity to work towards the betterment of the economy of this country. However, there have been challenges and difficulties. Q2. You have been successful in coming out of the image of your predecessors who were perceived to be reclusive. You have a very c

It has been two years since you became the governor. How do you describe the challenges in this role compared to your previous role as a bureaucrat? There have been several challenges and it is difficult to segregate one from the other. The pandemic is the biggest health crisis in a century leading to an economic one. The event by itself is once in 100 years. The level of direct accountability with the governor is very high. In RBI, the buck stops with the governor. W

Participants from RBI: Shri Shaktikanta Das – Governor, Reserve Bank of India Shri B.P. Kanungo – Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India Shri M. K. Jain – Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India Dr. Michael D. Patra – Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India Shri M. Rajeshwar Rao – Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India Shri Yogesh Dayal – Chief General Manager, Reserve Bank of India Yogesh Dayal (Moderator): It is really a great pleasure to have all of you here in this

In his first media interaction since the nationwide lockdown took effect to contain the spread of COVID-19, Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das told Cogencis that the central bank is yet to take a view on budget deficit monetisation or private placement of bonds. Below is the full transcript of the Governor's interview to Cogencis: (Note – Some elements of the transcript may be used with an attribution to Cogencis) Q. RBI has emerged as the first line of de

Interviewers: T. Bijoy Idicheriah and Kalyan Ram from Cogencis. RBI has emerged as the first line of defence against the impact of COVID-19, and some may say, the only line of defence. Do you think more fiscal measures are needed for the relief package to be effective? Also, what is your advice to the government? Should they suspend FRBM or monetise deficit? Fiscal measures are important and the government is working on a package of measures. The finance minister has

Sir I will start with the big picture question. You are back in the day before the RBI became a flexible inflation targeting central bank. Governors would often lay down their priorities in the annual statement which would give us a sense of the current context. Let me go back to that practice and ask you what your current priorities at the institution are given the economic situation: See for the central bank, especially a central bank like the RBI and its multifario

Q1. Governor thus, thank you very much for talking with us. Of course the issue of the day is coronavirus and many discussions around what policymakers might be able to do. Do you agree that there's a case for coordinated central bank action in response? A. That is definitely in a strong reason for coordinated policy action because coronavirus has now turned out to be a global problem so when the problem is a global naturally the need for coordination at coordinated a

It’s been more than a year now for you as RBI Governor, coming after exits of two governors and one deputy governor. How has the year been in terms of RBI-government relationship? For the central bank, it’s never a dull moment, especially in today’s world, and I’m saying so not just in the context of RBI, but for all central banks. Economies across the world are changing so fast, with new technologies, new business models, new challenges. So, the central bank will alw

February 06, 2020 Participants from RBI: Mr. Shaktikanta Das – Governor, Reserve Bank of India Mr. N. S. Vishwanathan – Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India Mr. B. P. Kanungo – Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India Mr. Mahesh Kumar Jain – Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India Dr. Michael D. Patra – Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India Mr. T. Rabi Sankar – Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India Shaktikanta Das: Good afternoon. I welcome all the media persons a

The central bank is awaiting the report of a forensic audit into Punjab & Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank and will have greater clarity on repaying depositors within a few weeks, says RBI governor Shaktikanta Das? It will take a few more quarters to see if signs of growth revival visible now are sustainable, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das tells Shritama Bose and Malini Bhupta. The central bank is awaiting the report of a forensic audit in

It is over three years now from when the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) was first constituted. The term of the present MPC will end in 2021. How has been the experience with the MPC? On the whole, the inflation targeting has worked well, in many senses. Number one, it is a committee-based approach, so more minds are going into decision-making. There are three external experts which bring in outside perspective. This definitely improves the quality of decision-making

Q1. Earlier this year you had referred to the Panglossian mood. Has the mood changed? A. Pangloss, if you see the character, was excessively obsessive. When somebody was drowning, he kept on saying this also will be alright. What I had told was that there are challenges, but there is no point in maintaining a mood of gloom and doom. At the same time, I said don’t maintain a Panglossian countenance and do nothing about it. There are challenges. You have to deal with it

December 05, 2019 Participants from RBI: Mr. Shaktikanta Das – Governor, Reserve Bank of India Mr. N. S. Vishwanathan – Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India Mr. B. P. Kanungo – Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India Mr. M. K. Jain – Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India Dr. Michael D. Patra – Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India Mr. Rajeshwar Rao – Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India Ms. Lily Vadera – Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India Mr. T. Rabi

December 5, 2019 Participants from RBI: Mr. Shaktikanta Das – Governor, Reserve Bank of India Mr. N. S. Vishwanathan – Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India Mr. B.P. Kanungo – Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India Mr. M. K. Jain – Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India Dr. Michael D. Patra – Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India Shaktikanta Das: Good morning to everyone. I will first read out my statement after which we will entertain questions and other interve

October 4, 2019 Participants from RBI: Shri Shaktikanta Das – Governor, Reserve Bank of India Shri N.S. Vishwanathan – Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India Shri B. P. Kanungo – Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India Shri M.K. Jain – Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India Dr. Michael D. Patra – Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India Shri M. Rajeshwar Rao – Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India Shri Yogesh Dayal – Chief General Manager, Reserve Bank of India Mo

October 4, 2019 Participants from RBI: Mr. Shaktikanta Das – Governor, Reserve Bank of India Mr. N. S. Vishwanathan – Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India Mr. B.P. Kanungo – Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India Mr. M. K. Jain – Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India Dr. Michael D. Patra – Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India Shaktikanta Das: Good Morning. I will make the usual customary statement in the beginning following which we will have questions and ans

Interviewer: Mythili Bhusnurmath In the last monetary policy review, the MPC and the RBI reduced the GDP estimate marginally to 6.9%. Since then, we have seen that the numbers for the last quarter came in much lower. In hindsight, how would you look at GDP now? The first quarter number came as a surprise. In fact, almost everybody had projected more than that. We had projected 5.8% for Q1 and all others had projected around 5.5%. So, the Q1 GDP number came as a big su