The Reserve Bank has ventured into Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) analytics in multiple areas in order to develop cutting-edge systems for high frequency and real-time data monitoring and analysis, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said today.

In his address at the inauguration of the RBI’s 18th Statistical Day Conference, Governor Das said: “The focus now is naturally on enhancing capacity in AI and ML techniques and analysing unstructured textual data. While doing so, ethical considerations need to be addressed and biases in algorithms need to be eliminated.”

He said that this annual event provides an opportunity to reflect on the current and evolving state of the statistical system. It also helps to take stock of the refinements in the application of statistical methods and technologies in the realm of public policy.

“Looking ahead, the year 2025 has a special significance for the compilation of official statistics the world over. Global efforts are expected to culminate in new global standards for the compilation of macroeconomic statistics, especially for national accounts and balance of payments. Our team in the Reserve Bank is closely tracking these developments,” the RBI Governor said.

The surge in computing power is being increasingly harnessed in combination with statistical methods to improve efficiency in decision-making and enrich end-user experience in various fields of human knowledge, he added,

The celebration of Statistics Day in India coincides with the birth anniversary of Professor Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis whose contributions in laying the foundations of modern-day official statistics in India have been pioneering. Inspired by his work, Indian statisticians are making their presence felt – both domestically and globally in traditional as well as in newer applications of statistics, he added.

Governor Das highlighted the areas in which the Reserve Bank’s cutting-edge information management is contributing to the formulation of public policies and the overall economic development in India.

“One year ago, we launched our next-generation data warehouse, i.e., the Centralised Information Management System (CIMS) at the Statistics Day Conference. Several new features were introduced in the new system. Scheduled commercial banks (SCBs), urban co-operative banks (UCBs) and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) have already been onboarded for reporting on the new portal,” he said.

The new CIMS is also facilitating research on the Indian economy, minimising reporting burden, exploiting the technological advances and improving the experience of both data providers and users, Governor Das added.
 

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Mumbai:

India has moved 100 metric tonnes of its gold stored in the UK to domestic vaults in FY24, sources said today.

This is one of the biggest movements of gold undertaken by the country since 1991, when pledging a substantial part of the gold holding to tide over a foreign exchange crisis resulted in its movement out of India.

The country’s overall gold holding increased 27.46 metric tonnes in FY24 and it stands at 822 metric tonnes, as per official data.

A substantial part of the precious commodity is stored abroad, the sources told Press Trust of India, adding that India also had its holding with the Bank of England like other countries.

The movement of 100 metric tonnes into India has taken the overall quantity stored locally to over 408 metric tonnes of gold, which means the local and foreign holding is now split almost evenly.

As per the annual report of the central bank for FY24 released on Thursday, over 308 metric tonnes of gold is held in India as backing for notes issued, while another 100.28 tonnes is held locally as an asset of the banking department.

Of the overall gold reserves, 413.79 metric tonnes are held abroad, the annual report said.

Sources told Press Trust of India that given the gold buying over the last few years, a call was taken to reduce the holding abroad which is part of the standard review procedures.

In 2009, India had bought 200 tonnes of gold from the International Monetary Fund, after which it has been buying the precious commodity from the secondary market as part of its foreign exchange asset diversification efforts.

Officials from the Ministry of Finance, the RBI and other agencies took care of the movement of gold in complete secrecy given the high value, as per the sources.

At present, the gold held locally is stored at high security vaults and facilities in Mumbai and Nagpur, the sources added.
 

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Mumbai:

Unclaimed deposits with banks have witnessed a 26 per cent jump year on year to Rs 78,213 crore at the end of March 2024, as per the RBI Annual Report released today.

The amount with the Depositor Education and Awareness Fund stood at Rs 62,225 crore at the end of March 2023.

Banks including cooperative banks transfer unclaimed deposits of account holders lying in their accounts for 10 or more years to RBI’s Depositor Education and Awareness (DEA) Fund.

As a measure to assist the account holders and with a view to consolidating and rationalising the extant instructions on inoperative accounts, the Reserve Bank issued a comprehensive guidelines earlier this year on the measures to be put in place by the banks covering various aspects of classifying accounts and deposits as inoperative accounts and unclaimed deposits, as the case may be.

The RBI advised banks for a periodic review of such accounts, measures to prevent fraud in such accounts, grievance redress mechanism for expeditious resolution of complaints, steps to be taken for tracing the customers of inoperative accounts or unclaimed deposits including their nominees or legal heirs for re-activation of accounts, settlement of claims or closure and the process to be followed by them.

These instructions were expected to complement the ongoing efforts and initiatives taken by banks and the Reserve Bank to reduce the quantum of unclaimed deposits in the banking system and return such deposits to their rightful owners/ claimants.

The revised instructions are applicable to all commercial banks (including Regional Rural Banks) and all co-operative banks and have come into effect from April 1, 2024.

To facilitate the depositors to search the unclaimed deposits across multiple banks easily and at one place, the Reserve Bank developed a centralised web portal UDGAM – Unclaimed Deposits Gateway to Access inforMation.
 

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Mumbai:

Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das today said India has been building up gold reserves as part of its forex deployment.

“We are building up gold reserves that is a part of our reserve deployment,” Governor Das told reporters at the customary post-policy review press conference.

He did not give any specifics on the quantum of gold buys, but pointed to the official data which shows an increase in the value of gold reserves.

As per official data, the value of gold in the forex reserves stood at USD 51.487 billion as on March 22, which is USD 6.287 billion higher than the value as at end-March 2023.

As per a recent news report, RBI bought 8.7 tonne of gold in January alone which is the highest in two years.

The central bank’s gold holdings had touched 812.3 tonne at the end of January from 803.58 tonne in the preceding month, as per the World Gold Council. The price of gold has also seen a rally over the last few months.

Earlier in the day, Governor Das announced that the overall forex reserves have touched an all-time high of USD 645.6 billion as of March 29, a breakup of which will be made available on Friday evening with the release of the weekly statistical supplement (WSS).

Speaking to reporters, Governor Das said RBI has consciously focused on building forex reserves over the last four-five years to act as a buffer against any future risks where there are dollar outflows from India.

He also said the central bank’s approach on the forex front adds strength to the national balance sheet as well.

Governor Das also said that having a stable rupee is a priority for the Reserve Bank.
 

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New Delhi:

India’s foreign exchange reserves rose for the fourth straight week to hit an all-time high of USD 642.292 billion in the week ending on March 15, as per the latest data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). During the week, the foreign exchange kitty rose by USD 6.396 billion.

Before March 8 week, the reserves rose by USD 10.470 billion to USD 636.095 billion.

During the latest week, India’s foreign currency assets (FCA), the biggest component of the forex reserves, rose by USD 6.034 billion to USD 568.386 billion, the central bank’s weekly statistical data showed.

Gold reserves during the week rose by USD 425 million to USD 51.140 billion.

In the calendar year 2023, the RBI added about USD 58 billion to its foreign exchange kitty. In 2022, India’s forex kitty slumped by USD 71 billion cumulatively.

Forex reserves, or foreign exchange reserves (FX reserves), are assets that are held by a nation’s central bank or monetary authority.

It is generally held in reserve currencies, usually the US Dollar and, to a lesser degree, the Euro, Japanese Yen, and Pound Sterling.

In October 2021, the country’s foreign exchange reserves last touched their all-time high. Much of the decline after that could be attributed to a rise in the cost of imported goods in 2022.

Also, the relative fall in forex reserves could be linked to the RBI’s intervention, from time to time, in the market to defend the uneven depreciation in the rupee against a surging US dollar.

Typically, the RBI, from time to time, intervenes in the market through liquidity management, including through the sale of dollars, to prevent a steep depreciation in the rupee.

The RBI closely monitors the foreign exchange markets and intervenes only to maintain orderly market conditions by containing excessive volatility in the exchange rate, without reference to any pre-determined target level or band.
 

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Bengaluru:

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday said that it has imposed a penalty of Rs 12 crore 19 lakh on ICICI Bank for violating rules related to the code of conduct for the bank’s directors and for fraud reporting.

The RBI’s inspection reports showed ICICI Bank had sanctioned or committed loans to companies in which two of its directors were also directors, the RBI said in a release.

The bank had also marketed and engaged in the sale of non-financial product and failed to report frauds to the central bank within the prescribed timeline of within three weeks from detection.

The violations were detected during inspections for the financial years ending March 2020 and March 2021, the RBI said.

The central bank separately penalised fellow private lender Kotak Mahindra Bank with a sum of Rs 3.95 crore.

The bank was found to have levied interest on some loans contrary to terms of sanction, failed to carry out an annual review of a service provider and ensure that its customers are not contacted between 7 pm and 7 am as directed by the RBI, inspections showed.

These violations were caught during an inspection for the financial year ending March 2022.

New Delhi:

Private sector lender Bandhan Bank on Tuesday said it has been appointed by Reserve Bank of India as an authorised pension disbursement bank on behalf of the Central Pension Accounting Office (CPAO) for the civil pensioners.

The bank will soon be integrating with the office of CPAO, Ministry of Finance, to operationalise the disbursement process, it said in a release.

The authorisation entitles the bank to disburse pensions to the central government employees in civil ministries/departments (other than railways, posts, and defence), National Capital Territory of Delhi, Union Territory Administrations without legislatures, retired judges of the high courts and the Supreme Court and All India Service Officers.

This scheme also covers payment of pensions to former Members of Parliament and the payment of pension and other amenities to former Presidents/Vice Presidents of India, the private sector lender said.