Reserve Bank of India
The RBI was set up to conduct monetary policy, manage public debt and foreign exchange reserves, act as the government’s banker, and support the development of markets and financial institutions. This chapter reviews how the institution has fared on these various dimensions. It begins by examining the appointment process for the Governor and the monetary policy committee. Next, it assesses the importance of an independent debt management agency and consistency between debt management and monetary policy. The connection between monetary policy and macroprudential policy is discussed next. Large foreign exchange reserves may be viewed by government at some time as a source for a national investment fund. This requires the RBI to engage with government and to define the objective of reserves management. The RBI’s actions to improve the resilience of financial markets and its involvement with social and distributional goals of directing credit towards priority activities are also evaluated.