Letters: RBI will move forward

Apropos Arup Roy's report, "In his last policy, Rajan puts onus on banks" (August 10), as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released its latest Monetary Policy Statement, the media and even most analysts and bankers were looking for parting words from its outgoing governor. They didn't find any.

The document looked no different in presentation and content from its earlier editions in the last three years.

But there was one difference that went unnoticed.

Rajya Sabha member Subramanian Swamy's might have alleged that Raghuram Rajan did not study economics at the undergraduate level. But from Day One on Mint Road, Rajan effectively put to use the management lessons he had picked up at IIM Ahmedabad and his international experience in monetary management, supplemented by expertise in teaching.

That Rajan referred to a slew of measures affecting the financial sector, which would be announced on August 25, during his post-policy interaction with the media on August 9 is proof enough that the next few weeks won't be spent in late-night farewell parties hosted by him or his colleagues at RBI.

It is no small task to lead from the front at the RBI, as Rajan has done. He has demystified the central bank's functioning and changed the way in which the institutional system in India's financial sector operates. The sector was playing a subservient role, for which scripts were being written by corporate and political leaderships, with implicit support from bureaucrats on North Block. The RBI will definitely rise to the occasion and move forward.

M G Warrier Mumbai

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