duvvuri subbarao : mint road milestones talking points by dr duvvuri subbarao, governor of the reserve bank of india, at the inauguration of newsibition, kolkata, 8 december 2010. * * * i am delighted to inaugurate this newsibition of the reserve bank in this city of joy. last year, the reserve bank celebrated our platinum jubilee. as part of the celebrations, we documented the 75 years of the reserve bank ’ s history in the form of a book – mint road milestones. milestones is rich treasure trove of archival material including, photographs, news clippings, documents along with a commentary which weaves them all together in an interesting narrative. in fact, the material that we collected was so interesting and rare that we thought it would be a great public service to put it up all in the form of an exhibition and make it accessible to a much wider audience. but why are we setting up the exhibition in kolkata? because, kolkata is where it all began. the reserve bank ’ s first central office was located here in this very building. it is thus appropriate that any effort to document the banks past and project its future be located here. this exhibition is a part of the bank ’ s outreach efforts to demystify the central bank. it seeks to introduce the viewer to the broad canvas, considerations and changing facets of thought that lay behind the bank ’ s policy efforts over the years. the display is divided into nine sections representing different phases in the bank ’ s evolution. these take the viewer down 75 years of central banking history covering critical events and policies. the reserve bank took birth here in kolkata on april 1, 1935 as a private shareholders institution. it shifted to mumbai shortly thereafter and was nationalized in 1949. soon after independence, the bank repositioned itself to meet the aspirations of an infant democracy and dovetailed its functions to the demands of a poor country with ambitious development goals. the 60s were a period of institution building where the reserve bank helped formalize systems for agricultural and industrial credit ; catalyzed institutions such as the state finance corporations and helped set up the deposit insurance corporation, the unit trust of india as the first mutual fund, the idbi as an apex development bank, etc. the 70s saw the nationalization of banks which heralded a new era when banking was taken from the classes to the masses. this was also the period when banks performed a critical role in

supply problems, as i will explain, are a large part of women ’ s experience in the workforce since the pandemic, and the lesson from this and other recessions is that policymakers need to carefully weigh all of the consequences of their decisions. it is fair to say that the majority of the economic conditions we are experiencing today, like inflation, are different from those of the last financial crisis. but as i just noted, there are some similarities in the impacts on the labor force. turning to the subject of my remarks today, i will discuss the role of women in the u. s. economy, focusing on the period since the onset of covid - 19. 2 you may already know that women suffered disproportionately more job losses than men during the pandemic. this was the opposite of what happened in past recessions, when men lost jobs at a higher rate than women. the difference this time has led some to call the 2020 downturn a “ she - cession. ” most of the differences between how men and women fared in the labor market during that time had reversed by 2021, but their different experiences highlight how participation by men and women can sometimes be driven by different forces. the backdrop for recent events is the long history, starting after world war ii, of women gradually entering the labor market. of course, women have always significantly contributed to and played a large role in the u. s. economy, but initially in ways that don ’ t show up in most government statistics. the rise of industrialization and the shift away from an agrarian economy provided opportunities for men to work outside the home and these remarks reflect my own views and not necessarily those of the board of governors of the federal reserve system or the federal open market committee. - 3women took on more responsibility for cooking, sewing, child - rearing and other domestic tasks. 3 we heard an echo of that history during the pandemic, because when schools closed and other childcare was disrupted, women assumed the majority of those caregiving responsibilities, which led many to quit their jobs and drop out of the labor force. this magnified the effect by eliminating jobs in childcare resulting in even more unemployment. but that wasn ’ t the only reason why women were impacted during this episode. let me start with the big picture on the differences between men and women in the labor market. before 1950, few women worked outside the home and the majority of those who did were unmarried