#history
#memory
Reserve Bank of India.
Reserve Bank of India was established on 1 April 1935 as the central bank of the British Imperial India, for the purpose of minting coins and printing currency notes.
RBI’s seal is inspired by the East India Company’s ‘Double Mohur’. The seal shows a tiger and a palm tree, with the tiger replacing the lion. The bank urgently needed to design a seal as it had to stamp the share certificates it issued in March 1935.
The RBI’s Deputy Governor, James Taylor was not pleased with the seal. He said the “tiger looks… like some species of dog”. Of the palm tree, he said, “The stem is too long and the branches too spidery.” But it was too late and the design remains, to this day.
RBI was originally privately owned by shareholders, from 1935 to 1949, when it was nationalised. The transition took place when CD Deshmukh was its Governor, the third RBI Governor and the first Indian to hold the post.
RBI was the central bank of Burma (Mynmar) also for a decade after the country seceded from British India in 1937 (except during Japanese occupation during 1942-45).
It remained the central bank of Pakistan also till June 1948, almost a year after Partition.
(adapted)
– Joy Kallivayalil.
