duvvuri subbarao : statistics and statistical analysis at the reserve bank of india inaugural address by dr duvvuri subbarao, governor of the reserve bank of india, at the third annual statistics day conference of the reserve bank of india, mumbai, 2 july 2009. * * * i am delighted to be here today to inaugurate this third annual statistics day conference of the reserve bank. it has now become a tradition for us to mark the statistics day as a tribute to late professor p. c. mahalanobis and his colossal contribution to the development of statistics in india, both as an academic discipline and as a tool for public policy. the mahalanobis model of development planning, based as it was on statistical data analysis, marked an important milestone in india ’ s development history. the large - scale sample survey techniques, as practised today, owe their foundation to the pioneering work done by prof. mahalanobis. the reserve bank is happy to honour the memory of prof. mahalanobis on this statistics day. this year ’ s statistics day is important for another reason. it is a part of the several learning events we are planning over the course of 2009 - 10 to mark the reserve bank ’ s platinum jubilee. i have no doubt that improving our understanding of statistical analysis and learning of the best practices in this area will help the reserve bank deliver on its mandate much better. we are privileged to have a person of the eminence of prof. t. n. srinivasan at this year ’ s statistics day. prof. srinivasan, currently the samuel c. park jr., professor of economics at yale, has very distinguished academic credentials and is acknowledged as one of the leading authorities in the world on trade and development. a significant amount of his work has involved statistical analysis, and we look forward to learning from his scholarship and his analytical insights during this conference. i also want to take this opportunity to acknowledge three of our special guests. prof. j. k. ghosh, presently a professor of statistics at purdue university, was formerly the director of the indian statistical institute. he is a world renowned authority on bayesian statistics. prof. arijit chaudhuri of the indian statistical institute is among the foremost experts in surveys. prof. chaudhuri extended the scope of survey methodologies in the area of multi - stage sampling, designing complex surveys, randomized response surveys and small area estimation. finally, and

k c chakrabarty : systemic risk assessment – the cornerstone for the pursuit of financial stability inaugural address by dr k c chakrabarty, deputy governor of the reserve bank of india, at the international seminar on “ operationalising tools for macro - financial surveillance : country experiences ”, organised by the financial stability unit ( fsu ), reserve bank of india, mumbai, 3 april 2012. * * * assistance provided by ms dimple bhandia in preparation of this address is gratefully acknowledged. first of all, let me extend a warm welcome to all of you to this vibrant city called mumbai. we, in india, often call this city the maximum city – it is undeniably, like the punch line of the advertisement of a global bank, a city which never sleeps. i hope all of you also take maximum advantage of your stay here in respect of the deliberations during the seminar and of the tremendous opportunities for entertainment that this city offers! the subject of this conference – “ operationalising tools for macro - financial surveillance ” is indeed very topical. across the globe, in the wake of the financial crisis, efforts are underway to alter institutional arrangements to explicitly pursue financial stability as a policy objective and to put in place a framework for the macro - financial surveillance of the financial system. at the core of any robust framework for macro - financial surveillance lies a framework for the identification and assessment of systemic risks. a deeper understanding of systemic risks is the cornerstone of the policy toolkit for pursuit of financial stability and hence this is the subject i thought i would dwell upon as i flag off the deliberations during this seminar. abstracting from details, the prevalent policy framework prior to the crisis focussed on two main tenets – a monetary policy focus for achieving price stability and a microprudential focus for ensuring the health and stability of individual institutions. the crisis turned the foundations of existing policy frameworks on its head and focussed sharper attention on systemic risk assessment and on crisis prevention. systemic risks – definition so what are systemic risks. there is no commonly accepted definition of systemic risk at present. the precise meaning of systemic risk is ambiguous ; it can mean different things to different people and different definitions have been attempted. the european central bank, for example, defines systemic risks as “ risk that financial instability becomes so widespread that it impairs the functioning of a financial system to the point where economic growth and welfare suffer materially ” 1 over a decade ago, a g