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The Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India met today at Raipur. Dr. Raghuram G. Rajan, Governor, Reserve Bank of India chaired the meeting. Shri Kiran Karnik, Prof. M.V. Rajeev Gowda, Dr. Nachiket M. Mor, Shri Y.H. Malegam, Prof. Dipankar Gupta, Dr. Indira Rajaraman and Prof. Damodar Acharya, Directors, attended the meeting. Dr. K.C. Chakrabarty, Shri Anand Sinha, Shri Harun R. Khan and Dr. Urjit Patel, Deputy Governors, were present. The meeting was also attended by Shri Arvind Mayaram, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs and Shri Rajiv Takru, Secretary, Department of Financial Services, the Government nominee Directors on the Central Board. The Board reviewed the current economic situation, global and domestic challenges and policy responses.

The Central Board meets at least once every quarter. Apart from holding meetings in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and one in New Delhi after the Union Budget which is addressed by the Finance Minister, the rest of the meetings are held in other state capitals by rotation. The main function of the Central Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank is to provide overall direction to the Reserve Bank’s affairs. The last RBI Central Board meeting at Raipur was held in 2006.

At the press meet held after the Board meeting, Dr. Rajan announced the names of other members of the committee set up by the Reserve Bank to advise it on new bank licences. These were: Smt. Usha Thorat, former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India, Shri Chandrakant Bhave, former Chairman, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Shri Nachiket M. Mor, Director, Central Board of Directors, RBI. As earlier announced, the Committee would be headed by Dr Bimal Jalan, former Governor Reserve Bank of India.

The Reserve Bank of India will also set up a task force to facilitate state government payments through electronic mode in Chhattisgarh, he said briefing the media on the Special State Level Bankers Committee meeting held earlier. Chaired by Dr. Rajan, this meeting was attended by senior officials of state government and banks. Some of the issues discussed at this meeting were: (i) banking density and penetration in the state of Chhattisgarh; (ii) effectiveness of implementation of Business Correspondent (BC) model and performance of BCs; (iii) priority sector lending; (iv) credit-deposit ratio in the state.

After the Central Board meeting, the Governor met the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh Dr. Raman Singh and discussed issues relating to growth and development of the state. Dr. Rajan also met the Governor of Chhattisgarh Shri Shekhar Dutt.

Governor Dr. Rajan and the top management of the Reserve Bank also interacted with industry representatives and students of Indian Institute of Management, Raipur.

Ajit Prasad

Assistant General Manager

New bank licensing committee formed to advise on licensing criteria and a task force to enable electronic state payments. The Central Board affirmed its governance role and announced a committee to advise on new bank licensing criteria and frameworks and a task force to facilitate electronic state government payments in Chhattisgarh. The Board reviewed state banking issues including banking density, Business Correspondent model performance, priority sector lending and the credit deposit ratio to strengthen access and payment infrastructure.