RESERVE BANK OF INDIA
- In 1926 the Hilton –Young Commission or the Royal Commission on Indian Currency and Finance (J.M. Keynes and Sir Ernest Cable were its members) made recommendations to create a central bank.
- RBI was established with a share capital of Rs.5 crores divided into shares of Rs.100 each fully paid up. (Total 5 Lakh shares)
- RBI Act was passed in 1934.
- RBI launched in operation from April 1, 1935 in Calcutta.
- Headquarter moved from Calcutta to Mumbai in 1937
- RBI was Nationalized on January 1, 1949 (Fully owned by GOI)
- The Government of India passed the Reserve Bank (Transfer to Public Ownership) Act, 1948 and took over the RBI after paying appropriate compensation to the private shareholders.
- From January 1, 1949, RBI started functioning as a government owned central bank of India.
- The RBI was the central bank of Burma until 1947, and the central bank of Pakistan until June 1948.
- Osborne Smith was the first Governor of RBI
- Current Chairman of RBI is Shaktikanta Das Since 2018.
Organizational Structure of RBI:
- The head office of the RBI is situated in
- It has four zonal offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta and Chennai.
Functions of RBI:
- Issues currency
- Bankers to the government
- Regulator of Indian Banking system
- Custodian of Forex
- Controller of credit
- It is the Central Bank/ Regulator for all bank in India Also called “ Lender of Last Resort”
- B.R. Ambedkar’s Ph.D. thesis on ‘The Problem of the Rupee – Its origin and solution’ was the reference tool and provided guidelines for the Reserve Bank of India Act of 1934.
- The Indian currency is called the Indian Rupee (INR)
- In a country the foreign currency is called foreign exchange.