RBI :: History

Two Volumes of the Bank’s history have been published so far. The First Volume covered the period from inception upto 1950 and was published by the Reserve Bank of India in 1970. This history was prepared by S.L.N.Simha under the overall Committee of Direction headed by the former Governor, CD Deshmukh. The rationale for the choice of period was that in 1950, India was declared a Republic. The year also coincided with the launch of the first Five Year Plan, wherewith India embarked upon a path of planned economic development.

The second volume of the Bank’s history covered the period from 1951 upto 1967. The material for the second volume was compiled by the History Cell which was headed at various points of time by U.K. Sharma, S.N. Dalal and A.L. Verma. The volume was authored by G. Balachandran under the overall guidance of the Committee of Direction headed by the Governor, Dr. C. Rangarajan. Dr. C.J. Batliwalla was a consultant to the Project. The Second Volume was published by the Oxford University Press in 1998. The rationale for the cut off period of 1967 was that it marked the beginning of a new phase in banking where thought processes veered towards experiments with social controls and the later the nationalisation of Banks which brought banking to the masses.

Volume I