It is a great honour for all of us at the
Reserve Bank of India to have the Honourable Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh
ji, our former Governor, to release the History of the Reserve Bank and to inaugurate
the Centre for Advanced Financial Learning. Both the actions are very fitting
since the History goes up to the time that the Prime Minister assumed office
as Governor; and the inauguration of the Centre marks a forward looking approach
to the development of the financial sector as a whole. If I may take the liberty
of adding a personal note; It was Dr Manmohan Singh who first, welcomed me at
the Planning Commission in 1980, after I had spent 16 years abroad, and again
as Deputy Chairman in 1986. Sir, I am therefore glad to have the opportunity
of welcoming you here at the Reserve Bank. May I on behalf of everyone in the
Reserve Bank family express our deep gratitude for this gracious gesture of
visiting us and marking these landmarks in our development?
The compilation of this year's volume of Currency
and Finance has been among the most difficult tasks that our staff has faced.
We are therefore deeply grateful to the Finance Minister, Shri P. Chidambaram,
for agreeing to release this volume, the first time ever that a Finance Minister
has done. Thank you very much indeed sir.
It is seldom that we have the pleasure of hosting
the Honourable Governor Shri S M Krishna and the Honourable Chief Minister Shri
Vilasrao Deshmukh of the state that we are located in: We appreciate very much
that you have taken the time out to be with us on this momentous occasion for
the Reserve Bank. It means a lot to us that you are with us today.
We are delighted that our former Governors,
Shri M. Narasimham, Shri S Venkitramanan, Dr C Rangarajan and Dr Bimal Jalan,
are with us today. Thank you very much for taking the trouble to travel all
the way to Mumbai today. We are particularly grateful to Dr Rangarajan for having
steered the compilation of the History, through many difficult times. Without
his guidance we would not be here today. I would also like to thank Dr A. Vasudevan,
Ms C Batlivala and TCA Srinivasa Raghavan for all the contributions that they
made, along with the staff of the Reserve Bank History Cell in compiling the
history.
I would also take this opportunity of commending
all my staff in the Department of Economic Analysis and Policy for all the arduous
work involved in preparing this year's edition of Report on Currency and
Finance.
We have been greatly assisted by the Advisory
Committee on the BTC, led by Dr R. H Patil. Many thanks for your selfless service
and for coming up with the concept of the Centre for Advanced Financial Learning.
I hope that we will live up to your expectations.
I would like to thank all the esteemed guests
who have graced this occasion.
Finally, may I commend all the staff of the
Reserve Bank who have worked so hard in making this function a success, members
of staff of the PMO, and all the state officials and staff of security agencies
who have helped us greatly.