relevance because by that time, the rbi had already acted on conventional instruments to the extent practicable, and had embarked on unconventional ones, including asymmetrically widening the policy interest rate corridor and balance sheet policies, i. e., expansion of its own balance sheet to infuse liquidity into the system. the statements emphasised financial stability, congenial financial conditions for growth and the orderly evolution of the yield curve as public goods and that both market participants and the rbi have a shared responsibility in securing cooperative solutions. by the time of the october 2020 statement, governor ’ s statements started contemplating the road to recovery, looking back at the hitherto untravelled road and calling upon the courage of hope to strive and revive. attention turned to qualitative aspects like deepening financial markets, digital payments security, financial inclusion, consumer protection and innovations in payment and settlement. india became one of the few nations in the world that ran its real time gross settlement system of swift, seamless and sound transfers of funds between banks and thereby their customers 365x24x7. fifth, the statements became the glue of a new innings in monetary and fiscal coordination. pandemic - related fiscal stimulus exacerbated fiscal deficits and resulted in record levels of market borrowings by both central and state governments. as the december 2020 statement pointed out, the rbi ’ s role as debt manager and banker to the government was tested to the hilt. a recurring theme in several statements has been that the rbi ’ s policy measures ensured the lowest borrowing costs in nearly two decades and the highest maturity of the stock of public debt while ensuring the smooth passage of the borrowing programme. for the states, ways and means advances limits were enhanced and rules governing withdrawals from the consolidated sinking fund were relaxed. liquidity facilities were linked with credit guarantee schemes offered by the government. a shining example of monetary fiscal coordination, which was placed on record by the statement of april 7, 2021 was the maintenance of status quo in the monetary policy framework by the government, entrenching a regime in which the inflation target is set by the government and the rbi is mandated to achieve the target. yet another instance that the statements of june 4, august 6, october 8 and december 8, 2021 underscore is the set of strong supply side interventions by the government that broke the back of then stubborn food inflation and brought headline inflation back into the tolerance band. sixth, the statements brought to bear first -

rbi ’ s pandemic response : stepping out of oblivion 1 professor muchkund dubey, president, professor shanta sinha, chairperson, managing committee, professor sujit kumar mishra, regional director ( in - charge ), dr. sunny jose, rbi chair professor, faculty and staff of the council for social development, hyderabad, ( hereafter csd ), students, researchers and faculty joining this event from various universities and research institutions across the country, colleagues and friends! it is indeed an honour to share my thoughts today under the prestigious c d deshmukh memorial lecture series instituted by the csd since 1997. for the reserve bank of india ( hereafter rbi ), this lecture series has a special significance. late shri chintaman dwarakanath deshmukh was the first indian governor of the rbi from august 11, 1943 to june 30, 1949. his association with the rbi began even earlier in july 1939 when he was appointed liaison officer to the rbi by the government of india. three months later, he was appointed secretary of the central board of the bank, two years later in december 1941 as the deputy governor, and then governor on august 11, 1943. he presided over the transformation of the rbi from a private shareholders'bank to a nationalised institution. under his stewardship, a comprehensive legislation for the regulation of banking companies was enacted. another landmark legislation under his leadership led to the establishment of the first financial institution for the provision of long - term credit to industry, namely, the industrial finance corporation of india ( ifci ). he also played an important role in the bretton keynote address delivered by michael debabrata patra, deputy governor, reserve bank of india at the c d deshmukh memorial lecture organised by the council for social development, hyderabad on january 28, 2022. valuable comments from sitikantha pattanaik, rajiv ranjan, indranil bhattacharya, abhilasha and editorial help from vineet kumar srivastava are gratefully acknowledged. woods conference in new hampshire, usa in july 1944, which established the international monetary fund ( imf ) and the international bank for reconstruction and development ( ibrd or the world bank ). his vision and ideas still resonate in the corridors of the rbi. among his many outstanding contributions to society at large, late shri deshmukh and his wife late shrimati durgabai deshmukh