Online Via Zoom
Most think of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as the entity that prints currency notes and sets interest rates. While these two are RBI's significant functions, communication has become a primary function of a modern central bank. The objective of central bank communication is to shape inflationary expectations and guide financial markets in future policy actions. RBI has been running a financial literacy campaign titled, RBI Kehta Hai.
Is the RBI's communication policy relevant, transparent, clear, comprehensive, and timely? Does it improve public understanding of the domains under its ambit? Does it manage the expectations of all economic agents? Does it enhance the efficacy of monetary policy and minimise undue speculation? Does RBI deepen its engagement with the multilingual and multicultural Indian society through its publications?
Our speaker, an economist and expert on monetary policy communication of the RBI, will discuss the global evolution of central bank communications in monetary policy. Beyond lessons from global best practices, the discussion will assess RBI's communication and what is needed to make people understand it better. We will seek an answer to the question "RBI kehta hai, but do we understand".
Dr Rajeswari Sengupta, Associate Professor of Economics, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), is an economist and an expert on the monetary policy communication of the RBI. Her research focuses on policy-relevant issues of emerging economies in general and India in particular, in the fields of international finance, open economy macroeconomics, monetary policy, banking, economic measurement, and financial markets. Dr Sengupta was a member of the research secretariat to the Bankruptcy Law Reforms Committee that drafted India's Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC, 2016).
Amol Agrawal, Assistant Professor of Economics at the Amrut Mody School of Management, is an economist in the Indian financial markets. He is an avid blogger whose blog ranks among the top 100 economics blogs of the world. Professor Agrawal contributes opinion pieces on India's macroeconomics for media houses Moneycontrol, Business Standard and Mint.
