Abstract

Financial inclusion – bringing low-income households into the formal financial sector – has for long been a development objective of poor countries. Over several decades, India launched many policies and programmes to deepen financial inclusion, but it proved to be an uphill task. Then something magical happened over the last decade that ushered in a revolution in financial inclusion. At the heart of this revolution were advances in digital technologies and their innovative adaptation for financial inclusion. What’s the India Story? How much is reality and how much hype? What are the lessons from India’s experience and what is the way forward? These are some of the questions that Dr Subbarao will address in this seminar.

About the Speaker

Duvvuri Subbarao served as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India for five years (2008-13). Prior to that, he was Finance Secretary to the Government of India (2007-08) and Secretary to the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (2005-07).

As a career civil servant in India for over three decades and as a lead economist in the World Bank for five years, Subbarao acquired vast hands-on experience in public finance management.

Subbarao holds a Masters Degree in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He studied Economics at the Ohio State University and later at MIT. He has a PhD in Economics from the Andhra University.

Subbarao’s book “Who Moved My Interest Rate” chronicling his experiences in leading the Reserve Bank of India through five turbulent years is best known for the way he explained the policy dilemmas confronting an emerging economy central bank in a globalized world.