About the Conference

Context and Objective
The Reserve Bank of India which commenced its operations on April 1, 1935 has entered 75th year of establishment. In the Platinum Jubilee Year, the Reserve Bank is organising a series of knowledge-sharing events such as seminars, special memorial lectures, 'Down the Memory Lane' meetings as well as various 'Outreach' programmes. These initiatives are aimed at making the Reserve Bank a more responsive, relevant, professional and effective public institution. The foremost in these events is the inauguration of a new series of biennial International Research Conferences to be organised by the Bank regularly.

The Conference on "Challenges to Central Banking in the Context of Financial Crisis" is the first in the series and is topical as the global economy braves an extraordinary challenge today. The current global recession, a fall-out of the unprecedented financial crisis, is the most serious economic crisis that the world has faced since the Great Depression of the 1930s. While green shoots of revival are evident and the recovery may well strengthen in due course, the role of central banks in managing the crisis and minimising the pains of adjustment has been remarkable.

The current scenario offers the central banks with both a challenge and an opportunity. A challenge because central banks were expected to address the onslaught of crisis; and an opportunity since there are lessons to be drawn from the new dimensions of the crisis and lead from the front. Through this Conference, the Reserve Bank intends to bring together veteran central bankers, academicians, policy makers, financial regulators and supervisors and private sector experts to a common platform to share their thoughts and to evolve solutions.

The Conference would provide a useful forum for the economists across the globe to exchange their views and research findings on issues relevant from a central bank's perspective, which would provide valuable insights into the policy making.