The Reserve Bank of India is a public authority as defined in the Right to Information Act, 2005. As such, the Reserve Bank of India is obliged to provide information to members of public.

The Reserve Bank of India has an established communication policy. Under this, the Reserve Bank of India regularly releases information and data on Indian economy, banking and finance. It releases the information and data at regular periodicity – daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, six monthly and annually. In addition, it also releases information, as and when required, through occasional publications, such as, studies and reports.

The Reserve Bank also places in public domain its instructions relating to banking, finance, foreign exchange and other related subjects. Further, the Reserve Bank also disseminates information, especially of general interest, through daily press releases.

The details of information that is already available from the Reserve Bank of India are:

The annual report of the Reserve Bank is the most important document released every year in late August. It is the statement of the Board of Directors on the state of the economy, the working of the Reserve Bank and on the balance sheet of the Reserve Bank. It also presents an assessment and prospects of the Indian economy.

The annual report is a statutory document relating to the financial year of the Reserve Bank (July to June) and is released in August.

This is also a statutory publication produced by the central bank. Presented annually, this document is a review of the policies for and performance of the financial sector for the preceding year. The publication, covering period from April to March, is generally released around November/December.

This annual document is presented by the staff of the central bank. Since 1998-99 the Report dwells on a particular theme and presents a detailed economic analysis of the issues related to the theme. While the focus of the Report is on the policy approach, issues and challenges relevant to India, the various Chapters present these developments against the recent theoretical developments and the accumulated cross-country empirical evidence. Since the publication is released around December, it also serves the purpose of presenting a mid-year review of the economy.

This publication is a major initiative by the Reserve Bank aimed at improving data dissemination by providing a useful storehouse of statistical information at one place. The publication provides time-series data (annual/quarterly/monthly/fortnightly/daily) pertaining to a broad spectrum of economic variables, including data on national income, output, prices, money, banking, financial markets, public finance, trade and balance of payments. The publication is also available in a hard copy as well as a CD-ROM format.

Also available on the RBI website is a database on Indian Economy which gives time series data on a wide range of subjects relating to India’s economy, banking and finance. This site also allows the visitor to cull out the data and use it for research.

A Study of State Budgets, this publication provides a comprehensive analytical assessment of the finances of the State Governments. Consolidated data of all State Governments are analysed in addition to State-wise analysis to draw policy implications.

This annual publication contains comprehensive data relating to the commercial banking sector. It covers balance sheet information as well as performance indicators of each commercial bank in India including those registered abroad. The data are presented bank group-wise and state-wise.

Yet another data-oriented publication, this annual presents comprehensive data on number of offices, employees, deposits and credit as per occupation of scheduled commercial banks. One of the features of this publication is that region-wise, state-wise and district-wise information is made available to the public.

This data-oriented publication gives data on deposits and credit of scheduled commercial banks for each quarter. The data compiled from bank returns are presented center-wise, state-wise, population group-wise and bank group-wise.

The publication is available for the quarters ending March, June, September and December in the month after the end of the quarter.

This is a monthly publication released in the first week of every month. The Bulletin publishes analytical articles based on data collected by the Reserve Bank often specifically for the purpose. It carries speeches of the Governor, Deputy Governors and Executive Directors. The speeches are useful in improving the understanding of the central bank's policies. Other useful inclusions in the Bulletin are important press releases and circulars issued by different departments of the Reserve Bank and data relating to economy, finance and banking. Often, significant reports released by the Reserve Bank including the Annual Report and the Report on Trend and Progress of Banking in India are issued as supplements to this monthly publication.

This is a monthly four-page periodical aimed at operational level bankers. The periodical summarises important circulars issued by the central bank during the month. It is published between 1st and 5th of every month.

This publication presents the weekly balance sheet of the Reserve Bank and other developments relating to financial, commodity and bullion markets. This is published on every Saturday at 12 noon.

The Reserve Bank releases through its daily press releases data on money market operations and reference rates for four major currencies, namely, the US Dollar, Euro, Pound Sterling and the Japanese Yen. The press releases are also issued on other issues that may be of general public interest such as important banking regulations, new currency notes, rejection or cancellation of certificate of registration of non-banking finance companies, status of urban cooperative banks, etc.

This is published once in four months and carries research papers presented by the professional staff of the Reserve Bank. The publication reflects the views of the authors. The Occasional Papers are being published thrice a year from 1999 onwards.

These are research studies conducted by external experts in India in collaboration with the internal staff members of the Reserve Bank. The Development Research Group is a forum that institutionalises participation of external expertise in in-house research.

Besides these, the Reserve Bank also publishes reports of committees set up by it for feedback and for wider dissemination of information.

The Reserve Bank brings out occasional booklets to familiarise the general public about the facilities available to them mainly in the area of foreign exchange.

The Reserve Bank of India has instituted three annual lectures. Two of these commemorate past Governors of the Reserve Bank and one a noted monetary economist.

In keeping with its objective of bringing in greater transparency in its decision making process, the Reserve Bank is committed to releasing more and more information in public domain.

The Reserve Bank of India will also place all the information it releases in response to the requests received under the Right to information Act, 2005 on its website, if, in its view, the information could be of general public interest.

In case you have a complaint against any department of the Reserve Bank of India for poor quality of services rendered, you may send your complaint to the Complaints Redressal Cell of the respective Regional Office of the Reserve Bank of India. For details of contact, please visit the Regional Offices section of the RBI website (http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/RegionalOffices.aspx)

Citizens of India will have to make the request for information in writing, clearly specifying the information sought under the Right to Information Act, 2005. The application for request should give the contact details (postal address, telephone number, fax number, email address) so that the applicants can be contacted for clarifications or the information. Since as per the Act, information can be furnished only to citizens of India, you will have to give your citizen status as well.

As per the Right to Information (Regulation of Fee and Cost) Rules, 2005 prescribed by the Government of India: a request for obtaining information under Section 6(1) of RIA needs to be accompanied by an application fee of Rs.10 by way of cash against proper receipt or by DD or bankers’ cheque payable to the Accounts Officer of the public authority.

You could send your request by post accompanied by the application fee of Rs.10/- payable by demand draft or bankers’ cheque favouring Reserve Bank of India. The fee can also be paid in cash along with the application. Applications can also be made over fax or email in which case, the Reserve Bank will acknowledge the application and give a serial number to the application and communicate the fees to be paid by the applicant. The applicant will, while quoting the serial number of his application, need to send the application fee. The Reserve Bank will take up the application for consideration, as required under the Act, only after the application fee has been received.

You can send your request to any of the following addresses:

The Reserve Bank of India will, within 30 days of receipt of the application for information along with the fee, communicate to the requestor whether it can or cannot provide the information.

As per the Right to Information (Regulation of Fee and Cost) Rules, 2005, the public authority shall charge:

• Rs.2/- for each page (in A-4 or A-3 size paper) created or copied;
• actual charge or cost price of a copy in larger size paper;
• actual cost or price for samples or models; and
• for inspection of records, no fee for the first hour; and a fee of Rs.5/- for each 15 minutes (or fraction thereof thereafter)

Further, to provide information under Section 7(5) of the Right to Information Act, 2005, the public authority shall charge:

• Rs. 50/- per diskette or floppy; and
• for information provided in printed form at the price fixed for such publication or Rs. 2/- per page of photocopy for extracts from the publication

If the Reserve Bank of India has the information and can provide it to you it will, within 30 days of its receiving the application along with appropriate fees, communicate to you the cost of providing the information as prescribed under Section 7(1) of Right to Information Act.

You will get the information, once the Reserve Bank of India receives the payment towards providing the information.

The Right to Information Act, 2005 under Sections 8 and 9 exempts certain categories of information from disclosures. These include:

• Information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence.
• Information which has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of law or tribunal or the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court;
• Information, the disclosure of which would cause a breach of privilege of Parliament or the State Legislature;
• Information including commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure of which would harm the competitive position of a third party, unless the competent authority is satisfied that larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information; 
• Information available to a person in his fiduciary relationship, unless the competent authority is satisfied that the larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such information;
• Information received in confidence from foreign Government; information, the disclosure of which would endanger the life or physical safety of any person or identify the source of information or assistance given in confidence for law enforcement or security purposes;
• Information which would impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders;
• Cabinet papers including records of deliberations of the Council of Ministers, Secretaries and other officers;
• Information which relates to personal information the disclosure of which has no relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual.

Under the Right to Information Act, 2005 you have the right to appeal if you are not satisfied with the information provided by the Reserve Bank or its decision not to provide the information requested.

You can address the appeal to:

Under the Act, if you are not satisfied with the decision of the appellate authority within the Reserve Bank of India, you can appeal to the Central Information Commissioner appointed in terms of Chapter 3 of the Right to Information Act, 2005.