Reserve Bank of India

the central state bank of issue of India, founded in 1935. The bank was nationalized on Jan. 1, 1949, the central government buying all the bank capital from the stockholders. The bank has the exclusive right to issue money and control monetary circulation, float bonds, and control the state debt under the authority of the central government and governmental agencies of the individual states. It keeps assets and handles accounts for the central government and state governmental agencies. It sets the bank discount rate by which promissory notes and other commercial documents are redis-counted, sold, or purchased. It holds compulsory bank reserves and grants credit to other banks, the central government, and state governmental agencies. The bank stores the country’s gold and currency reserves and buys and sells gold, silver, and foreign currency.

The Reserve Bank of India has capital of 50 million Indian rupees and bank reserves of 1.5 billion Indian rupees. As of Nov. 30, 1974, the balance sum was 89 billion Indian rupees, central government deposits were 590 million, commercial bank deposits were 5.7 billion, total investments in governmental securities were 5.9 billion, the total of bank notes issued was 59.7 billion, and gold and currency reserves were 8.8 billion.