Mumbai, Sept 20 IBNS | 1 year ago

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan will on Friday present his maiden monetary policy review here.

Rajan on Sept 4 started off his term as the new RBI chief, announcing a tranche of headstrong measures to support the country's troubled currency and revive investor confidence.

Announcing a slew of reforms, many of them focused on "protecting the value of money", Rajan emphasised that while the Indian economy faced challenges, it was fundamentally strong.

Pitching the stability of the rupee and "low and stable levels of inflation" as top priorities for the central bank, Rajan promised that his policies would lead to "faster, broad based inclusive growth leading to fall in poverty".

He outlined plans to pave the way for more funds from overseas by subsidising hedging costs for banks and making it easier for importers and exporters to hedge currency risk.

He also warned of unpopular measures saying, "Some of my actions will not be not looking to garner Facebook likes."

The 50-year-old academic former International Monetary Fund chief economist succeeded Duvvuri Subbarao, taking on the office as India's economy grapples with what is seen as its worst economic crisis since 1991.

(Posted on 20-09-2013)