Shaktikanta Das: Financial markets in India - in pursuit of stability and development

Keynote address by Mr Shaktikanta Das, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, at the 22nd Fixed Income Money Market and Derivatives Association of India - Primary Dealers Association of India (FIMMDA-PDAI) Annual Conference, Dubai, 27 January 2023.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

It is my pleasure to be part of the Annual FIMMDA-PDAI Conference today. I would like to place on record the Reserve Bank's appreciation of the critical role played by FIMMDA and PDAI in the development of financial markets in India over the years, and more recently, in partnering with the RBI in guiding the markets and the economy through the turbulent times of COVID-19, the war in Ukraine and the turmoil in financial markets.

2. Today, as I speak before keen market players, veterans and experts, I thought this would be an opportune moment to recapture the journey of our financial markets in the last decade or so and reflect on where we are and what we think about the course ahead. An attempt to draw from the past and forge ahead, so to speak. 

3. From the global financial crisis to the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis; from the taper tantrum to Brexit; from unprecedented quantitative easing to among the most accelerated monetary tightening in recent memory; from a pandemic which brought humankind to a standstill to a geopolitical crisis which threatens the world order as it exists today - it would not be an exaggeration to say that the world has moved from one storm to another in the years since the global financial crisis.

4. Against this backdrop, the journey of Indian financial markets has been driven by two key objectives – stability and development. Crisis management has been a key component of this journey. Nonetheless, the pursuit of developmental reforms, with the key objective of widening and deepening of financial markets was continued even amidst the worst storms.