RBI Central Board meets Today at Mumbai; Governor meets State Government and Bankers

The Central Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of India met today at Mumbai. Dr. D. Subbarao, Governor, Reserve Bank of India chaired the meeting. Shri Y. H. Malegam, Prof U. R. Rao, Shri Lakshmi Chand, Shri H. P. Ranina, Shri Suresh Neotia, Dr. A. Vaidyanathan, Prof. M. M. Sharma and Shri Sanjay Labroo were present at the meeting. Deputy Governors of the Reserve Bank, Dr. K.C. Chakrabarty, Dr. Subir Gokarn, Shri Anand Sinha and Shri H R Khan were also present. The meeting was also attended by Shri R. Gopalan, Secretary, Economic Affairs and Government nominee director on the Central Board and Dr. Kaushik Basu, Chief Economic Adviser. The meeting reviewed key economic, monetary and financial developments in the country.

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.

Prior to the Board meeting, the Governor also met, on August 10, 2011, the officials of the Maharashtra State Government and bankers at a specially convened meeting of the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC). Issues, such as, crop loans, crop insurance, financial inclusion, cooperative banks and credit-deposit ratio in the State of Maharashtra were discussed. The following decisions were taken:

• The performance of commercial banks in disbursement of crop loans in Maharashtra was better than that in the previous years. However, commercial banks would strive to further improve the achievement of the increased target of crop loans this year.

• Banks and State government would work together to establish linkages so as to directly credit Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) benefits to beneficiaries’ bank accounts. For this purpose, all the lead banks would cover one block each in the next one month, review the performance there and scale up to cover the entire State.

• Banks would also open 25 per cent of their branches in villages with population of less than 10,000.

• Senior bank and government officials, such as, Regional Managers and District Collectors would periodically visit the bank branches in sensitive/ disturbed districts in the State to understand first-hand, issues and problems faced by the branch level functionaries and ensure availability of banking services in these areas.

Alpana Killawala
Chief General Manager

Press Release : 2011-2012/234