RBI board meets in Bhubaneswar

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) held its Central Board of Directors meeting at Bhubaneswar on Thursday. Governor D. Subbarao chaired the meeting, which was attended by the directors Anil Kakodkar, M.V.Rajeev Gowda, Y.H.Malegam, Dipankar Gupta, G. M. Rao, Ela Bhatt, Indira Rajaraman and Najeeb Jung. Deputy governors of the Central bank such as K.C.Chakrabarty, Subir Gokarn, Anand Sinha and Harun R. Khan were also present.

However, the RBI officials denied to say anything about the outcome of the meeting citing the restrictions imposed by the Election Commission of India due to ongoing assembly polls and civic body, village level elections.

RBI directors meet every quarter at every state capital rotationally to give guidance to the Central bank's affairs.

On Wednesday, the RBI top official had met state level bankers and discussed issues related to opening of additional bank branches by the commercial banks in the rural areas, progress in financial Inclusion plan and delivery of assistance under the beneficiaries oriented programmes through electronic benefit transfer (EBT) mechanism.

Subbarao also met chief minster Naveen Patnaik at secretariat yesterday. During the meeting Patnaik stressed on increasing credit support to agriculture and allied sector by the commercial banks, financing of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), Self Help Group and Bank linkage programme, loan recovery climate, organisational aspects of Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs), financial illiteracy and credit counseling centres and licensing District Co-operative Credit Banks (DCCBs).

During his two-day long visit, the RBI Governor attended the 50th anniversary of Bhubaneswar branch of the Central bank.