take this opportunity to point out that all the attempts made for merger of banks do not necessarily result in a successful outcome. there has been an instance where despite the process of merger having progressed quite a bit, it did not eventually fructify. the case of the attempted merger of the then uti bank and the erstwhile global trust bank can be cited in this regard. while the scheme of voluntary amalgamation of the two banks had been submitted to the rbi for approval, the approval was kept on hold pending the completion of the sebi investigations. it may be recalled that, in the run up to the proposed merger, the sebi had initiated certain investigations into the share - price manipulation of the gtb shares. while the approval from the rbi was yet to be granted, the proposed merger was called off by the parties concerned. thus, the merger did not materialise. consolidation of the development financial institutions ( dfis ) 21. it may be recalled that the dfis were set up in the country in the post - independence era for providing long - term finance to the industrial projects to facilitate industrial development, in the absence of alternative sources of long - term funds. hence, to enable the dfis to play this role, they were also provided access to certain concessional sources of funds by way of allocation of slr bonds and lending from the long term operation funds of the rbi. however, with the onset of financial sector reforms, and pursuant to the recommendations of the first narasimham committee, the access by the dfis to the traditional concessional sources of funds was gradually phased out. consequently, the raising of resources at market - related rates, increased their cost of funds, thereby, affecting the very viability of their business model, coupled with increasing competition from the banks. the dfis came within the regulatory purview of the rbi in 1991 for the first time, and the regulatory domain of the rbi, till recently, extended to the seven term - lending institutions ( tlis – exim bank, icici limited, idbi, idfc limited, ifci limited, iibi limited, and tfci limited ) and three refinancing institutions ( rfis – nabard, nhb and sidbi ). 22. the committee on banking sector reforms ( second narasimham committee ) had recommended in 1998 that the dfis over a period of time should convert themselves into banks and there should be only two forms

deepak mohanty : statistics in the reserve bank of india welcome remarks by mr deepak mohanty, executive director of the reserve bank of india, on the occasion of 6th statistics day conference, reserve bank of india, mumbai, 17 july 2012. * * * governor dr. subbarao, prof. r. radhakrishna, chairman, national statistical commission, dr. aurel schubert, director general, statistics department, european central bank ( ecb ), deputy governor dr. subir gokarn ; other distinguished speakers prof. j. r. varma, iim ahmedabad, prof. probal chaudhuri, isi kolkata and prof. amit bubna, isb, hyderabad ; deputy governors, colleague executive directors, distinguished guests from the financial sector and academia, members of the press, shri a. b. chakraborty, officer - in - charge, dsim and friends. i extend a warm welcome to you to this statistics day conference. 29th june is celebrated as statistics day to commemorate the sterling contribution of prof. prasanta chandra mahalanobis to statistics and the indian statistical system. in addition, the reserve bank also holds an annual statistics conference, which provides a forum for interface of our statisticians with academia, external experts and with operational departments. these two annual events provide us an opportunity to review the progress of statistical work in the reserve bank and guide us in setting the agenda for further work. i am sure, today ’ s conference theme, data gaps and central banking, will reinforce that process. in evidence - based public policy and decision - making mechanism, statistics is a critical tool. at the same time, statistics is a public good. over the years, there have been initiatives by the government, the reserve bank and professional bodies like the indian association for research in national income and wealth and the indian econometric society for identifying data gaps in the indian economy. the report of the national statistical commission has helped in identifying major gaps in economic database on india. in 2010, the national statistical commission had set up a number of professional committees to look into various issues relating to improvement in official statistics. the report of the reserve bank ’ s working group on surveys ( 2009 ) has also highlighted important data gaps. improving database is an ongoing process. while several initiatives have been taken at the national level to bridge data gaps, i will focus on the recent initiatives of the reserve bank. the reserve bank ’ s policy canvas is large