deepak mohanty : statistics and the reserve bank – recent developments and perspective opening remarks by mr deepak mohanty, executive director of the reserve bank of india, at the annual statistics conference 2013 of the reserve bank of india, mumbai, 22 march 2013. * * * 1. deputy governor, dr. urjit r. patel, shri a. b. chakraborty, officer - in - charge, department of statistics and information management ( dsim ) ; heads of select central office departments ; distinguished statisticians and economists from the academia ; and friends. i extend a warm welcome to you all to the annual statistics conference 2013, organized by dsim. this conference provides a platform to the officers of dsim to present their research work before the experts and receive their feedback in order to make the analysis more meaningful for policy and research. i thank the distinguished professors who have consented to discuss various papers prepared by my colleagues in dsim : prof. manoj panda ( director, institute of economic growth, delhi ), prof. n. r. bhanumurthy ( nipfp, new delhi ), prof. tathagata bandyopadhya ( iim, ahmedabad ), prof. rajendra vaidya ( igidr, mumbai ), prof. chetan ghate ( isi / icrier delhi ), prof. pulak ghosh ( iim, bangalore ), prof. t. v. ramanathan ( pune university ). you all bring together plenty of expertise and experience in the field of theory and practice of statistical research for economic policy making which is of great value to us. 2. i have said it earlier that statistics is a public good. as a central bank, we are responsible for generating various macro - financial statistics collected both from primary and secondary sources in the process of implementing our policies. we use statistics and statistical tools extensively to aid informed policy making. therefore, a solid statistical grounding and soiling the hands with data are basic prerequisites for the making of a good empirical economist. this is evident from the presence of many eminent economists amongst us in this conference. 3. let me recapitulate briefly about the outcome of the 2012 conference in the context of major developments that took place in the statistical activities during last one year. in the last year ’ s conference, dsim researchers presented 12 technical papers. subsequently these papers were revised based on the feedback received from the external experts.

ppi in indian context could be attempted by the department. fifth, during last 5 years or so, statistical systems both for financial and banking, have undergone a major change. new systems are introduced in line with global standard of data compilation and dissemination. in this context, efforts should be made to update the “ manual on banking and financial statistics ”, which was published last in 2007. sixth, while the department has made considerable inroads towards collection of forward looking information for monetary policy formulation, our effort on financial inclusion surveys has been limited. financial inclusion is policy priority of the bank. therefore, it is necessary for the department to engage itself in formulation and undertaking of surveys on financial inclusion, particularly assessment of financial inclusion outcomes in the villages following the outreach programme of the bank, in collaboration with rpcd and its regional offices. seventh, the department has noticeable presence in a number of central office departments, like monetary policy department ( mpd ), department of external investment and operations ( deio ), internal debt management department ( idmd ), department of information technology ( dit ), department of payment and settlement systems ( dpss ), department of banking supervision ( dbs ) and financial stability unit ( fsu ). it is desirable that our officers in these departments provide analytical inputs for policy and operational issues and come out with research papers. these papers could be presented in conferences and published eventually in the rbi working paper series. this will make research more valuable in furthering our organisational objectives. eighth, focused and determined approach to research across various units, including the regional offices, should be pursued so that research agenda being adopted by the department is accomplished in a timely manner. for data management and dissemination, technology must be harnessed to its fullest extent. there is also a need to strengthen the modelling and forecasting capabilities towards developing a full - fledged forecasting suite including dsge models. 17. finally, i conclude with a quote from the famous statistician john tukey : “ the best thing about being a statistician is that you get to play in everyone ’ s backyard. ” i see limitless opportunities for a statistician as the demand for statistical skills and statistics in the bank keeps growing as we grapple with many questions. i hope the deliberations of this conference will bring academics and policy makers closer and lead to strengthening our statistical analysis and system. i wish the conference all success. 18. thank you. bis central bankers ’ speeches