Like the previous ones the fourth volume of the history of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is a treasure house of statistical and qualitative information on its working during 1981-1997. It runs to 1,348 pages and is in two parts to facilitate easy handling. In this day and age even an ardent student of central banking cannot be expected to read the volume of such substantial proportions in full. Together with the previous three volumes relating to the period from 1935 the total number of pages of the history add up to around 4,600 pages. The RBI will be rendering a signal service to the academic community if it can bring out an abridged version of all the four volumes in, say, 400 pages. The price will also be moderate compared with the amount of Rs 2,195 one has to pay for the latest volume alone. The work involved should be simple enough to publish the volume next year marking the 80th anniversary of the passing of the RBI Act (1934) since there is no need to do any fresh research into the archives.
A Seshan, Mumbai
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