India’s new central bank governor hits the ground running, outlining several concrete policy measures ranging from a short-term forex swap window to national savings instruments

In his first statement as governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Raghuram Rajan today outlined his vision to reform India’s financial system – including a raft of initiatives on financial inclusion, and short-term measures to help ease the country’s currency woes.

Rajan, who assumed office today, said a special concessional window allowing banks to swap foreign currency non-residential (FCNR) dollar funds until November 30 will “help our banks bring in safe money to fund our current account deficit”. The central bank, he said, had been receiving requests from banks “to consider a special concessional window for swapping FCNR deposits that will be mobilised following the recent relaxations” by the RBI of restrictions on the amount of overseas direct investments Indian businesses can make as a share of their net worth.

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