The Reserve Bank of India

The Reserve Bank of India is now 35 years old. Relatively to some of the oldest Central
Banks, such as the Riksbank of Sweden and the Bank of England which date back to the
17th century, the Reserve Bank is still a very young institution indeed. However, it is one
of the oldest central banks in the developing countries. Its formative years have been
eventful. Its efforts to adapt central banking functions and techniques to an economy in
which modern banking was neither deep-rooted nor widespread, the special
responsibilities including those of exchange control that it was called upon to shoulder
with the outbreak of World War II in the very first decade of its existence, its
transformation from a privately owned institution to a nationalized undertaking, its new
role in the economy with the advent of independence -all these make the Bank’s initial
years of special interest. The Bank therefore felt that it would not be too soon for a
history of its earlier years to be written.