Prime Minister Modi Marks RBI's 90th Anniversary with Visionary Speech

Tags: Important Days

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the audience at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) celebrated its 90th anniversary on April 1st, 

An Overview of the News:

• The Prime Minister Modi released a commemorative coin to mark 90 years of RBI on the occasion.

• The event was attended by various dignitaries, including RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, Union Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Chief Minister of Maharashtra Eknath Shinde, Deputy Chief Ministers of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar, and other state and federal officials.

Key points from Prime Minister Modi's speech:

• Prime Minister Modi stressed in his speech that India wants to be economically independent over the next ten years in order to protect itself from the volatility of the world financial system. 

• He emphasized the RBI's critical role in accomplishing this objective. 

• He told that India's share of the world economy is growing rapidly, having risen to 15% during his administration.

• In the long run, he thought that the following ten years would be crucial to realizing the goal of a developed India by 2047. 

• The Prime Minister lauded the strengthened state of the Indian banking sector under his administration, noting a significant decline in Gross Non-Performing Assets (NPA) from 11.25 percent in 2018 to less than 3 percent by September 2023. 

• He brought up the government's Rs 3.5 lakh crore injection into public sector banks to increase their resilience.

Origin and Background of RBI:

• The idea for the formation of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country's central bank, came from the Hilton-Young Commission, also known as the Royal Commission on Indian Currency and Finance.

• The Reserve Bank of India Act 1934 was passed in compliance with the recommendations made by the Hilton-Young Commission.

• The RBI started its journey on April 1, 1935, and commenced operations.

• After being privately owned for a while, the RBI was nationalized in 1949 and is now owned by the government.

The RBI's primary duties include:

• Creating, carrying out, and overseeing monetary policy.

• Supervising and regulating the banks, NBFCs, NABARD, SIDBI, EXIM Bank, and other components of the Indian financial system.

• Managing India's foreign exchange holdings.

• Releasing banknotes in India (other from coins and notes valued at Re 1).

• Overseeing and controlling India's payment and settlement system.

• Acting as the government's banker and representing all scheduled banks.