The long answers to RBI Quiz 2022 are given below: Continue reading “Answers to RBI Quiz 2022”
Rupee and SDR
A potpourri of personal thoughts and anecdotes on exchange control, the dollar, the rupee and SDR
During the over three decades in central banking, I never worked in foreign exchange or related functions. Without going into detail, this was part choice and part chance. Nevertheless, my batch’s 64-week induction training involved working for two months at all desks, including clerical ones, of the Exchange Control Department (ECD), as the department was then known. When ‘management’ replaced ‘regulation’ in the erstwhile Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, ECD eschewed ‘control’ and became the Foreign Exchange Department. Similarly, the Controller in charge of the Department’s Central Office in Mumbai became a Chief General Manager like any other. Continue reading “Rupee and SDR”
The Madras Law College
Having five finance ministers from one College is unusual. That honour goes to the Madras Law College.
Year-end Quiz 2022
Quiz 2022, like last year, focuses on central banking in India.
There is a prize, like last year, for the first person to answer all questions correctly. The details are in my substack post. Participation in the quiz is open to those who were following me on substack at gsreekumar.substack.com as on 31 December 2022. Continue reading “Year-end Quiz 2022”
The Regulations Review Authority
More on the Regulations Review Authority, or RRA
Background
On 13 March 1999, the Reserve Bank of India decided to set up a Regulations Review Authority for one year. The objective was to make the Reserve Bank regulations effective and simple. The background to constituting the RRA, effective from 1 April 1999, was as given below: Continue reading “The Regulations Review Authority”
My meetings with Dr Reddy
Another day in 1998
From 1996 to 1998, I was an AGM and Member of Faculty at the Reserve Bank of India’s Zonal Training Centre (ZTC) in Mumbai. The ZTC was then on the fourth floor of the Bank’s Byculla Office opposite the Bombay Central Station. The story of my meetings with Dr Reddy starts on 7 October 1998. On my way home, I saw a tray next to a pillar on the ground floor. It always had letters addressed to the hoi polloi, staff not important enough to receive letters at their desks. Those were still snail mail days. Nevertheless, I always ignored the tray. But that day, my sixth sense indicated a letter for me.
As I rifled through the pile, my fingers fell on a white cover with the RBI logo in navy blue at one end. Turning it over, I found my name and address scrawled at the right end. On the left was printed, also in navy blue, “Reserve Bank of India Central Office Bombay”. Above it was another scribble: Dr YV Reddy, Deputy Governor. Continue reading “My meetings with Dr Reddy”
The NSE Case: The Yogi and the Commissariat
The NSE Case, where Chitra Ramkrishna and a Paramahamsa took the world’s leading derivatives exchange to the cleaners
“Man is neither angel nor brute, and his misery is that he who would act the angel acts the brute.” – Blaise Pascal
Continue reading “The NSE Case: The Yogi and the Commissariat”
My corporate governance experience
I initially thought of titling this Advice to a Young Director, in the manner of Advice to a Young Scientist by Sir Peter Medawar, the British-Brazilian biologist and writer of Lebanese origin, and Nobel Laureate in Medicine (1960). Writing of Medawar, “The wittiest of all scientific writers,” wrote Richard Dawkins, and “the cleverest man I have ever known,” wrote Stephen Jay Gould. Coming from Dawkins and Gould, there cannot be higher praise. Medawar’s short book, suggested by a Physics Professor at IIT Madras, stayed an inspiration through my research. It is highly recommended for researchers in any discipline including corporate governance. Continue reading “My corporate governance experience”
The Kerala Model: The Stories Within
The Kerala State’s Economic Review 2020 blandly claims that the State’s development outcomes are comparable with the most developed countries. Is this true? Has Kerala’s progress in economic indicators since independence been superior to that of other States? To what extent are the State’s historical, geographical, social, and cultural factors responsible for its superior outcomes? Didn’t countries and regions with similar characteristics have similar and perhaps better outcomes? We examine these questions and are led to conclude that the ‘Kerala Model’ is less a model and more an experience. Continue reading “The Kerala Model: The Stories Within”
RBI Quiz 2021 – The Answers
Last week I had posted questions for the RBI Quiz 2021. The answers are provided below. I should add that most of these questions are curtain raisers to future and more elaborate posts on the subject. Stay tuned! Continue reading “RBI Quiz 2021 – The Answers”