many corporates, the last few years of slower growth and trade, would arguably have been easier to handle, had they focussed on proper management of currency and interest rate risks. fifth, the risks associated with excessive leverage have very clearly been brought out by the crisis. the recent experiences have, thus, under - scored the age old lesson of the downside of excessive “ greed ”. on its part, the reserve bank has continuously been making efforts in sensitising the banks and the end - users for judicious use of available derivative products in india in managing both currency as well as interest rate risk. while there is a comprehensive regulatory frame work put in place for otc derivatives products to hedge currency risk, such as forwards, swaps, options, etc. exchange traded currency futures and options have also been permitted in order to provide the benefit of transparent pricing and better risk management. bis central bankers ’ speeches long - term forex derivatives the forward market in india is pretty liquid up to one year. the liquidity in forward market for tenor beyond one year, however, is unsatisfactory and poses difficulties for market participants who want to hedge a long term forex exposure. mostly they deal with the problem by booking contracts up to one year and then roll it over till the maturity of the exposure. this strategy partially addresses their long term risk, reducing exchange rate risk to the risk of a less volatile forward premium. while there has been no regulatory restriction put on bookings of longterm forwards as such, there is asymmetry in this segment in the sense that it is dominated by demand on the buy side. further, the illiquidity also owes to the absence of a rupee ( term ) interest rate swap market, and this makes it difficult for the market makers to price a long term forward contract. mtm of the forex derivatives another related issue in this context that i would briefly like to touch upon is marked to market ( mtm ) on outstanding forex derivative contracts and the reluctance on part of some of the corporates on entering into such contracts for fear of mtm losses, should the price of the underlying variable move in other direction. it needs to be emphasized that the mtm is a dynamic concept representing the fair value of the contracts taking into account the market movements and essentially represents the replacement cost of the derivative contracts. these accounting losses should, therefore, be looked at in totality along with the economic rationale of the hedges undertaken.

than half a century since its inception, the scheme has evolved in line with the development agenda for the country. the lead bank scheme relies on a coordinated approach at all levels amongst banks, financial institutions and the government machinery for effective delivery of banking services to all sections of the economy. this co - ordinated approach has yielded significant results in terms of expanding banking access and improvement in the flow of priority sector credit. 1 / 5 bis - central bankers'speeches more recently it has also led to the expansion of digital payments with slbcs taking the lead role in the objective of making every district in the country digitally enabled. i am happy to note that 354 districts are now digitally enabled. ten states including karnataka and six union territories have achieved 100 per cent coverage of districts under this initiative. indeed, the lead bank scheme can be a powerful tool to bring about transformative change. as ldms, ddms and ldos, you are the very pillars on which this scheme rests, playing a crucial role in driving financial inclusion at grassroots level. your efforts in extending banking services and credit access to underserved regions would undoubtedly bring immense satisfaction to all involved. having served as the convenor for the slbc in telangana, i can personally attest to the deep fulfilment that comes from making a tangible difference in people's lives through the lbs fora. a common question we face is, are we doing enough? how much more remains to be done? in 2021, the reserve bank introduced the financial inclusion index ( fi - index ), which tracks progress across 97 indicators in three key dimensions : ( i ) access ( ii ) usage ( iii ) quality. the index which was at 53. 9 in march 2021 now stands at 64. 2 for march 2024 as a testimony to the efforts that has been put in by all of you. india has made significant strides in enhancing'access'to banking and financial services, reaching even the most remote areas. however, there is still considerable ground to cover in deepening financial inclusion. this requires greater focus on promoting'usage'and improving the'quality'of services. in both these critical areas, the role of lead district managers from the banks and district development managers from nabard is indispensable. in this context, i would like to outline a few key expectations. know your district well firstly, it is imperative that you cultivate a deep understanding of your respective districts - so, you should truly'know your