By Amol Agrawal, Associate Professor, National Institute of Securities Markets
The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) communications have entered a new era. It first launched a webseries (RBI Unlocked) in 2025, followed by a podcast (RBI Talks: From Paisa to Policy) in 2026. For a student of financial history, it is quite incredible to take note of the innovations made by the RBI and other central banks to enhance their communications.
For most parts of their history, central banks were seen as quaint organisations led by mysterious individuals. Montagu Norman, governor of Bank of England (1920-44), famously said: “Never explain, never excuse.” His words were echoed later by Federal Reserve chairperson Alan Greenspan (1987-2006), who quipped, “If I seem unduly clear to you, you must have misunderstood what I said.”
Having said that, the design of a central bank is such that it has to communicate its policies. The question is whether it does so silently or openly. In their earlier avatar, central banks communicated silently by releasing multiple reports—annual reports, bulletins, macroeconomic and financial data, economic research, and so on. They also played a silent role as their job was limited to maintaining the fixed exchange rate. In 1971, the fixed exchange rate system collapsed followed by a significant rise in inflation. These dual pressures shifted the central banking consensus towards targeting inflation and letting exchange rates be market-driven.
The new consensus gave birth to the inflation targeting framework (ITF), where transparency in communications became a major central bank tool. Central banks started issuing detailed monetary policy statements, organising press conferences and providing forward guidance. The central bankers became a public face and their speeches guided markets.
The next push came during the 2008 crisis when central banks were criticised for supporting the Wall Street and ignoring the Main Street. The central banks responded by taking steps to communicate with the people. Technology played a huge role as a catalyst in communications. From closed-door press conferences, central banks started using YouTube to live-stream monetary policy decisions. To explain monetary policy, the central banks of New Zealand and England used cartoons and the Central Bank of Jamaica used reggae music. The European Central Bank started a blog and a podcast. Central bank websites became user-friendly and they established social media handles.
How does the RBI fare in this communications history? The fourth and fifth volumes of RBI’s history trace the history of its communications. Like other central banks, communications were always an important function of RBI but there was no formal communication policy. From its inception, the RBI released several reports highlighting economic developments and policies: annual report, monthly bulletin, currency and finance report and Weekly Statistical Supplement. In 1969, it appointed a press relations officer, which was upgraded to press relations division (PRD) in 1978. The PRD published material about the RBI and monitored its press reports.
After the 1991 crisis, the central bank undertook many financial sector reforms that touched communications too. The lobal central banking turn towards transparency also played a role. Before 1991, the RBI announced credit policy twice—in April (slack season) and October (busy season)—behind closed doors with bankers. With reforms in money markets, the scope of credit policy was widened to “monetary and credit policy”. From 2005-06 onwards, the word credit was dropped and “monetary policy” was announced every quarter.
In 1996, the RBI launched its website that played a major role in ushering in changes. In 2007, the website was made available in a multilingual format. The central bank published cartoon booklets to impart financial education. It also put up a data portal allowing download of macroeconomic and financial data.
In 2008, the RBI framed a formal communications policy which was updated in 2025. The goals of the policy are “transparent communication, clear interpretation and accurate articulation of the multifarious objectives of the Reserve Bank”. In 2008, the PRD was upgraded to Department of Communications. Today, this department shepherds all communications.
Post-2008 financial crisis, the RBI started teleconferencing with media and researchers. It also started live webcasting its monetary policy and started publishing the Financial Stability Report. In 2016, it implemented the ITF, and the new additions to communications were the publishing of monetary policy resolution statements and monetary policy report, releasing minutes of monetary policy meetings, and writing a letter to the government in case inflation targets were missed for three quarters. The RBI also established its accounts on social media platforms such as X, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
It has now taken a leap and added a web series and a podcast to its communication repertoire. While central banks have podcasts, producing a web series to show the RBI’s evolution and functions is a unique effort.
In 1982, then governor Manmohan Singh said that given the importance of central bank policies, they should be subject to public debate. However, as central bankers are “very shy” and “not adept in techniques of mass communication”, their policies “are always not well-understood and appreciated”. How these words have turned on their heads. Now, thanks to so many communication channels, every word is parsed, which leads to misunderstanding of a different kind.
Disclaimer: The views expressed are the author’s own and do not reflect the official policy or position of Financial Express.