Letters: RBI and GOI | Business Standard
Lettes: RBI and GOI | Business Standard
Submitted version:
Submitted version:
This refers to the report “Jalan
wants flexible policy-making, better govt-central bank ties” (April 15). If an
ex-RBI Governor of Bimal Jalan’s stature, who is still closely associated with
policy formulation in government and financial sector says, “…The utmost
importance should be put on cohesion and coordination between policy makers in
critical spheres”, it doesn’t need super-intelligence to infer that the
observation comes in the context of the goings on in relation to the recent
frictions between the political leadership in New Delhi and the Reserve Bank of
India.
As Dr Jalan and a few more Ex-RBI
Governors who are part of or very close to the power centres in New Delhi know,
RBI has always gone more than half way to accommodate GOI perceptions.
Inadequate reciprocity from the other side and policy compulsions emanating
from some of the roles not commonly handled by other central banks assigned to
RBI, sometimes brought embarrassments to RBI Governor in public eye.
As rightly observed by Dr Jalan,
there is no escape for GOI and RBI from working in cohesion with broad national
priorities in view. And here, solution does not lie in shifting public debt
management from RBI to finance ministry or GOI fixing targets for management of
inflation by RBI. In the Indian context, Finance Ministry and the central bank
have a relationship which has to be nurtured and maintained without affecting
harmony, even when difference of views may arise, as in the past.
M G Warrier, Thiruvananthapuram
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