When the RBI listens and communicates to bring change

Something unusual happened during the post-policy press conference of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on April 5.

- RAVI DUWURU

Just before the close of the conference, Governor Shaktikanta Das extended new financial year wishes to everyone. In my experience - and I may be corrected by more prolific followers of the RBI - this was the first time an RBI governor had done so. While this went largely unnoticed and the policy per se was non-event as expected, the significance of Das's wishes should not be lost. In my view this shows a paradigm shift in the RBI's approach towards economic management. Maybe it was the governor's way of conveying that today RBI recognises the importance of the financial year in the life cycle of banks and real-sector companies.

We may never know for sure, but given the deft communicator Das is, one would like to believe that not a single word in the policy statement is included without thought.

Another very important part of the governor's statement which largely went unnoticed by the media was that the recommendations of the Regulatory Review Authority (RRA 2.0) have been largely implemented by the RBI.