KOCHI (KERALA): Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das said India is the “highest ranked G20 country according to the Climate Change Performance Index 2023″ and is also the “5th best performing country worldwide”.
Speaking at the 17th KP Hormis Memorial Lecture on Friday, Das said: “Given that India is widely expected to remain one of the fastest growing economies in the world, our demand for energy could rise many fold. The challenge for us is twofold: one, to meet the expected increase in energy demand; and two, to rapidly transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.”
“Climate-proofing our infrastructure has also been a priority, especially given the large investments in infrastructure in recent years,” said the governor. “Through global fora such as the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI)4, India is leading global efforts to address these challenges,” said the governor of the RBI.
The governor said the ongoing global crisis was both an opportunity and a major test for the G20, which accounts for 85 percent of global GDP and 75 percent of world trade. “Following the 1997 East Asian financial crisis, the G20 was established in 1999 as a forum for finance ministers and central bank governors to discuss global issues and policy options,” he added.
“Following the 2008 global financial crisis, the G20 was upgraded to the level of heads of state/government in 2009,” said the RBI governor, adding “In an interconnected world, national policies may not be fully effective unless the nature of the shocks is global and persistent.”
The governor said: “Of the many risks facing the global community, the rise in inflation in every economy has created a complex monetary policy dilemma between raising interest rates enough to contain inflation while minimizing the growth sacrifice to a hard countries.”
He said the aggressive monetary policies tightened by systemic central banks since early 2022 and the resulting appreciation of the US dollar have left several economies, with a high share of external debt, highly vulnerable to indebtedness.
Regarding the recent development in the US banking system, he said it has highlighted the importance of the regulation and supervision of the banking sector. “These are areas that have a significant impact on maintaining the financial stability of any country.”
He said these developments in the US underline the importance of prudent management of assets and liabilities, robust risk management and sustainable growth of liabilities and assets; conducting periodic stress tests; and building capital buffers for any unexpected future stress. “They also raise that cryptocurrencies/assets and the like can pose a real danger to banks, directly or indirectly,” he added.
The governor said that RBI has taken the necessary steps in all these areas and that the regulation and supervision of the financial sector and regulated entities have been appropriately strengthened.
Shaktikanta Das said the regulatory steps include implementation of leverage ratio (June 2019), large exposures framework (June 2019), guidelines for governance in commercial banks (April 2021), guidelines for securitization of standard assets (September 2021) . ), Scale-Based Regulatory Framework (SBR) for NBFCs (October 2021), Revised Microfinance Regulatory Framework (April 2022), Revised Regulatory Framework (July 2022) for Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs) and Digital Lending Guidelines (September 2022) .
According to the governor, RBI’s supervisory systems have been significantly strengthened in recent years through measures including a unified and harmonized supervisory approach for commercial banks, non-bank finance companies and urban cooperative banks.
Speaking at the 17th KP Hormis Memorial Lecture on Friday, Das said: “Given that India is widely expected to remain one of the fastest growing economies in the world, our demand for energy could rise many fold. The challenge for us is twofold: one, to meet the expected increase in energy demand; and two, to rapidly transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.”
“Climate-proofing our infrastructure has also been a priority, especially given the large investments in infrastructure in recent years,” said the governor. “Through global fora such as the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI)4, India is leading global efforts to address these challenges,” said the governor of the RBI.
The governor said the ongoing global crisis was both an opportunity and a major test for the G20, which accounts for 85 percent of global GDP and 75 percent of world trade. “Following the 1997 East Asian financial crisis, the G20 was established in 1999 as a forum for finance ministers and central bank governors to discuss global issues and policy options,” he added.
“Following the 2008 global financial crisis, the G20 was upgraded to the level of heads of state/government in 2009,” said the RBI governor, adding “In an interconnected world, national policies may not be fully effective unless the nature of the shocks is global and persistent.”
The governor said: “Of the many risks facing the global community, the rise in inflation in every economy has created a complex monetary policy dilemma between raising interest rates enough to contain inflation while minimizing the growth sacrifice to a hard countries.”
He said the aggressive monetary policies tightened by systemic central banks since early 2022 and the resulting appreciation of the US dollar have left several economies, with a high share of external debt, highly vulnerable to indebtedness.
Regarding the recent development in the US banking system, he said it has highlighted the importance of the regulation and supervision of the banking sector. “These are areas that have a significant impact on maintaining the financial stability of any country.”
He said these developments in the US underline the importance of prudent management of assets and liabilities, robust risk management and sustainable growth of liabilities and assets; conducting periodic stress tests; and building capital buffers for any unexpected future stress. “They also raise that cryptocurrencies/assets and the like can pose a real danger to banks, directly or indirectly,” he added.
The governor said that RBI has taken the necessary steps in all these areas and that the regulation and supervision of the financial sector and regulated entities have been appropriately strengthened.
Shaktikanta Das said the regulatory steps include implementation of leverage ratio (June 2019), large exposures framework (June 2019), guidelines for governance in commercial banks (April 2021), guidelines for securitization of standard assets (September 2021) . ), Scale-Based Regulatory Framework (SBR) for NBFCs (October 2021), Revised Microfinance Regulatory Framework (April 2022), Revised Regulatory Framework (July 2022) for Urban Cooperative Banks (UCBs) and Digital Lending Guidelines (September 2022) .
According to the governor, RBI’s supervisory systems have been significantly strengthened in recent years through measures including a unified and harmonized supervisory approach for commercial banks, non-bank finance companies and urban cooperative banks.
