PREFACE

The Handbook of Statistics on the Indian Economy introduced in 1998 has been a major initiative of the Department of Economic Analysis and Policy (DEAP) aimed at improving data dissemination by providing time series statistical information on a wide range of economic and financial indicators of different frequencies. The present volume of the Handbook for the year 2008-09 is eleventh in the series. This year’s Handbook is also simultaneously released in electronic form on the Data Base on Indian Economy: Reserve Bank’s Data Warehouse, http://dbie.rbi.org.in which would facilitate more frequent updating of information.

2. The print volume contains 251 statistical tables covering national income aggregates, output, prices, money, banking, financial markets, public finances, foreign trade, balance of payments and select socio-economic indicators. Complete historical data has been provided in the web version and CD-Rom version accompanying the print version. The web version of the Handbook can be downloaded from the Reserve Bank’s website: http://www.rbi.org.in. The coordination of the work of the print and electronic versions of the Handbook of Statistics was undertaken in DEAP under the guidance of Adviser B M Misra. K U B Rao and S V S Dixit, Advisers of DEAP also provided guidance. Nishita Raje, Director supervised the task of this voluminous publication assisted by Sarat C Dhal, Assistant Adviser and Arvind K Jha, Research Officer. P.B. Kulkarni, Swapna Mathapati, Assistant Managers and Preeti R. Ramsinghani, Word Processer Assistant provided able assistance.

3. Preparation of the Handbook is a team effort involving large number of officers and staff. The sincere effort of all of them in ensuring timely publication of the Handbook deserves appreciation. It has been possible to place the Handbook on DBIE platform on a real time basis. This will enable the users to get the data as and when they are available on a continuous basis rather than waiting for this annual publication. The Real-Time Handbook thus marks an important contribution in data dissemination in the Platinum Jubilee Year of the Reserve Bank.

4. This year’s Handbook is a landmark as it provides for the dynamic updation on the DBIE platform. This is an outcome of joint efforts by DEAP and Department of Statistics and Information Management (DSIM). The information will now be updated more frequently on DBIE platform facilitating almost real-time dissemination of all data series in the Handbook of Statistics. The work relating to the real-time version was taken up under the guidance of A.S. Ramsastri and B.M. Misra, Advisers supported by A. K. Sharma, Director; P. Jana, Y.K. Gupta, Assistant Advisers; Nanuram Meena, Saket Kumar Sharma, Sourjyoti Sardar, Sweta Kumari, Research Officers; A.V. Phadke, C.S. Patankar, D.B. Bandivadekar, N.V. Ranade, R.U. Chaudhari, Sanjay Bhatewadekar and officers of Division of Econometrics, DEAP.

5. The data for this Handbook are provided primarily by the various Divisions of DEAP. Several other Departments of the Bank, viz., Department of External Operation and Investment, DSIM, Financial Markets Department, Foreign Exchange Department, Internal Debt Management Department and Monetary Policy Department also contributed to this publication. The officers of various source Divisions and Departments strived hard for timely completion of the work with a high degree of precision. Those who contributed to this effort include Ashok Sahoo, Gunjeet Kaur, Jayanti K. Anand, Jeevan Khundrakpam, Kumudini Hajra, Rajan Goyal, Rajib Das, Rajiv Ranjan, Rekha Misra, Sitikanth Pattnaik, Directors; Anand Prakash, Anupam Prakash, Atri Mukherjee, Bhupal Singh, Deepak Mathur, Deepa S. Raj, Dipika Das, M. Ramaiah, P S S Vidyasagar, Pallavi Chavan, Rajeev Jain, Saurabh Ghosh, Sunil Kumar, Vineet Srivastava, Assistant Advisers; Abhijit Pathak, Abhilasha, Amarendra Acharya, Brijesh P. , Dirghau Raut, Edwin Prabu, G. V. Nadhanael, Jitendra Asati, Lal B. Singh, Monika Kathuria, Sangita Misra, Shiv Shankar, Smita Sharma, Subrat Seet, T.P. Meite, Research Officers; C. Marathe, Manager and D.S. Pinto Assistant Manager.

6. We welcome comments and suggestions on the Handbook which may please be forwarded at the following address: Director, Division of Econometrics, Department of Economic Analysis and Policy, Reserve Bank of India, Central Office, Shahid Bhagat Singh Road, Fort, Mumbai 400001 Fax No.91-22-22630061 or by e-mail: handbook@rbi.org.in for the print version and to Director, Operational Analysis Division, Department of Statistics and Information Management, Reserve Bank of India, C-9, 3rd Floor, Bandra-Kurla Complex, Bandra (East), Mumbai 400051 or by e-mail dbiehelpdesk@rbi.org.in for the electronic version.

Deepak Mohanty
Executive Director
September 15, 2009