RBI Bhopal
RBI Bhopal is the branch office of the Reserve Bank of India for the State of Madhya Pradesh. It is situated at Hoshangabad Road in Bhopal. The jurisdiction of the office extends to the State of Madhya Pradesh. It is headed by a Regional Director of the Reserve Bank of India. Presently it is headed by P. R. Ravi Mohan.[1]
Brief history
RBI Bhopal was established in the year
Nearby landmarks
RBI Bhopal situated opposite Maida Mill on the Hoshangabad Road. The officers' residential quarters are located at Char Imli.
Organisation and structure
RBI Bhopal has the administrative control over all the currency chests of Madhya Pradesh. It also has regulatory and supervisory jurisdiction over all the commercial banks, urban cooperative banks and NBFCs in the State. The office of the Banking Ombudsman for Madhya Pradesh is also located in the premises of RBI Bhopal.
Major achievements
RBI Bhopal was one of the first offices of Reserve Bank of India to experiment with mechanised currency verification and processing system (CVPS). Before the introduction of CVPS, banknotes in RBI were examined manually by hundreds of Coin Note Examiners. The process was tedious and prone to human error. The introduction of CVPS under the leadership of Vepa Kamesam.,[2] the then Deputy Governor of RBI formed a landmark in the Clean Note Policy of RBI.[3]
Following the 9/11 attacks in New York in 2001, RBI Bhopal requested the Disaster Management Institute to conduct evacuation drills for high rise buildings. This initiative formed the basis of subsequent annual disaster management drills in all offices of Reserve Bank of India.[4]
Scandal and controversies
RBI Bhopal was rocked by one of the most sensational frauds in the history of Reserve bank of India, when the then Regional Director Uma Subramaniam received a call from a person claiming to be a relative of the Governor Dr Y V Reddy, who "badly needed Rs 20 lakh in cash". Without verifying the identity of the caller, the Regional Director arranged the money by coercing her employees to immediately withdraw all their cash. Subramaniam herself went in an autorickshaw and handed over the cash to the unknown person, who quietly walked away. Later it was discovered that the "Governor's relative" was an impostor. The Regional Director was charge-sheeted following a departmental enquiry and was demoted from CGM rank to GM for her foolishness and gross negligence of duty. But subsequently she found favour with the RBI Top Management and was not only reinstated to her earlier position, but also given important portfolios like supervision and regulation of commercial banks and NBFCs. [5]