heads. we have also organized a ‘ seminar on liquidity management in rtgs environment ’ to apprise you of the challenges that you may face on the operationalisation of the rtgs system and the manner in which you have to control and co - ordinate your liquidity management measures to derive optimal benefits from the rtgs system. it cannot be disputed that that the technological innovations, in general, have been at the core of the reform process in the services sector globally and the financial sector, in particular. for the last so many decades, it has been driving the business re - engineering process in our banking industry. we, at the rbi, have been actively studying these developments and readying ourselves to provide for a technology framework and operating environment, conducive to the banks. let me share with you some of the initiatives that we have undertaken. a reliable communication backbone to facilitate improvement in financial services, the reserve bank of india has, through idrbt, set up the infinet - a ‘ closed user group ’ network as the exclusive domain for the applications of the entities in the banking and financial sector. as you all know, the infinet is a blend of vsat technology and terrestrial leased line technology based wide area network. infinet provides for the robust and reliable communication backbone for the implementation of all the systemically important payment system applications. reserve bank ’ s concerns and focused attention on the twin issues of security over the infinet and message standards for intra / inter - bank applications have led to the development and implementation of the structured financial messaging system ( sfms ), a standard messaging protocol, which would be riding on the infinet communication backbone. sfms has adequate in - built security and with public key infrastructure ( pki ), provides for a security solution of international standards. sfms will also act as an alternative for accelerating the integration of the branches of the banks. secondly, a state - of - the - art, robust and secure platform - ibm s - 390 system with a complete standby installation - has been made operational in mumbai centre to ensure the availability of the requisite technical infrastructure, capable of robustness, operational resilience and redundancies to ensure business continuity. the disaster recovery site is being set up at a geographically distanced location from mumbai. you will all agree that these efforts are incomplete without the total involvement and participation of the end - users of the payment and settlement system. the proverbial “

niklaus blattner : current economic situation and monetary policy summary of a speech by mr niklaus blattner, vice - chairman of the governing board of the swiss national bank, at the 1st basel economic talks of the national bank, basel, 5 may 2006. the complete speech can be found in german on the swiss national bank ’ s website ( www. snb. ch ). * * * switzerland ’ s economy clearly picked up pace last year. exports were the main engine for growth, while construction and consumer expenditure also buoyed up economic activity. companies were nevertheless reluctant to invest or hire new staff. the recovery was thus still patchy, and inflation risks were accordingly low. since the beginning of the year, there has been a stream of positive news from switzerland and abroad. the us and asia are still enjoying a high level of economic momentum, and in europe, too, the recovery is becoming more firmly entrenched. benefiting from the favourable international environment, the upswing in switzerland has gained a broader footing. the investment environment in particular seems much more attractive now than last year. this applies especially to northwestern switzerland. many companies in this region have stated that they now want to implement investment plans that have been put on hold for a long time. the swiss national bank expects switzerland ’ s gdp to expand by just over 2 % this year. the economic upturn does not jeopardise price stability, at least not in the short term. in the long term, however, the current low level of interest rates is not compatible with price stability. if the economy performs as expected, the national bank will further pursue the gradual adjustment of its monetary policy that has already been initiated.