The teams from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi and Indian Institute of Management, Raipur were today declared winners of the inaugural edition of the RBI Policy Challenge 2016; and the teams from College of Engineering & Technology, Bhubhaneswar and School of Management Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad were declared runners up. The teams emerged winners from among 260 participating teams after gruelling rounds at regional and zonal levels. They were adjudged winners by a panel of eminent jury led by Dr. Raghuram Rajan, Governor, Reserve Bank of India.

The RBI Policy Challenge is a national level competition launched by the Reserve Bank of India this year to further the spread of knowledge regarding financial, monetary and banking matters among the student community.
In his address, the Governor lauded all the students who participated in the competition. “It was like hearing ourselves talk,” he said and added that it also made the participants understand that behind the glamour of the job (of being a high level policy maker) lies a lot of hard work. The Governor also said that while there was tremendous space for expressing independence at the RBI, it was important to explain what one does and why to get buy-in from people, including the political establishment. Hoping that the competition would enthuse others to participate in the future in such events and enter the fields of economics, banking, finance, and administration, the Governor said, “It is important for the country to get good people to join the policy arena. And if we have convinced a few of you tonight to do so, that’s a real win for the country.”

Building on the success of RBIQ – an annual quiz competition covering school students – the RBI Policy Challenge targets under graduate and post graduate students of any discipline in any of the reputed State/Central Universities or institutes of excellence. It is an annual three-tier competition that tests essay-writing, problem solving and presentational skills of the participants in a competitive format.

Rolled out in January 2016, the competition had three rounds – regional, zonal and national. The regional round, conducted by the Reserve Bank’s regional offices, involved writing of an essay by the students (in groups of 3 or 4 guided by a faculty adviser) on the topic ‘Demographic Profile of India: Opportunity or Threat?’ Results of the regional rounds were announced on February 29, 2016 by various regional offices of the Reserve Bank for their respective centres. The winning teams were awarded a cash prize of ? 10,000/- each.

The regional round winners from every zone battled it out in the zonal rounds conducted at four centres (Delhi, Pune, Chennai and Kolkata) on March 9, 2016. In this round the teams presented a SWOT analysis of the Indian economy on the basis of results of the Reserve Bank’s 38th Round of Survey of Professional Forecasters on Macroeconomic Indicators. The winning teams were IIFT, Delhi (North Zone), IIM, Raipur (West Zone), School of Management Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (South Zone) and College of Engineering & Technology, Bhubaneswar (East Zone). The teams were awarded a cash prize of ? 15,000/- each and advanced to the national round.

The national round was held in Mumbai today (April 5, 2016). A monetary policy related topic involving hypothetical scenarios was assigned to all teams in the forenoon and they were required to make a 15-minute presentation in the afternoon before a select panel of jury headed by Dr. Raghuram G. Rajan, Governor, Reserve Bank of India. The other members on the jury were: Dr Urjit R. Patel, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India, Shri S S Mundra, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India, Professor Errol D’ Souza, Faculty, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Professor Ashima Goyal, Faculty, Indira Gandhi Institute for Development Research, Mumbai, Dr. Sajjid Z. Chinoy, Chief India Economist and Executive Director, J P Morgan and Dr. Pranjul Bhandari, Chief India Economist, HSBC. The teams also fielded questions posed by the Panelists and media representatives present at the venue.

The winning teams were awarded a running trophy and a cash prize of Rupees one lakh each. The members of the winning teams would also be given the opportunity to intern with the Reserve Bank for a period of three months in a department of their choice. Teams declared runners up won a cash prize of ? 50,000 each plus a trophy.
The two winning teams from IIFT, Delhi & IIM, Raipur

The two winning teams from IIFT, Delhi & IIM, Raipur
The RBI Policy Challenge: The two winning teams from IIFT, Delhi & IIM, Raipur
The winning team from IIM, Raipur comprised Shri Ajay Singla, Shri Kewal Krishna Bhoi, Shri Pushp Mitva and Shri Vivek Yadav (Faculty: Prof. Pradyumna Dash); and the team from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi comprised Shri Rajat Malik, Kum. Sheryl D’Souza, Kum. Harshita Solanki and Shri Ganesh Sukumar (Faculty: Dr. Jaydeep Mukherjee).
The two runner up teams from JNTU, Hyderabad & CET, Bhubaneswar

The two runner up teams from JNTU, Hyderabad & CET, Bhubaneswar
The RBI Policy Challenge: The two runner up teams from JNTU, Hyderabad & CET, Bhubaneswar
The runners up team from CET, Bhubaneswar comprised Shri Arghya Patnaik, Shri Satya Prakash Mishra, Shri Debabrata Pramanik (Faculty: Prof. Sudhanshu Sekhar Sahoo); and the team from School of Management Studies, JNTU, Hyderabad comprised Kum. Bina Jayabalan and Shri Syed Zakir Hussain (Faculty: Dr. V. Mohan Kumar)

Alpana Killawala
Principal Adviser
Press Release : 2015-2016/2348