Chronicles of India's Central Bank (1981-1997)

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) makes news, perhaps more news than a central bank should be making. The RBI’s monetary policy statement cannot match the union budget’s capacity to attract eyeballs, but it makes up in sheer frequency – its monetary policy statements come out every quarter and in the middle of each quarter. Then there are the speeches and interviews of RBI’s senior officials, its circulars, and numerous publications, all of which make news in varying degrees.

If history is the aggregation of news, the RBI can be justly said to be an active creator and shaper of history. It is appropriate that its history should be chronicled. The RBI has set out to do this with its own internal team. The fourth volume of its history came out a few months ago.