A Fly on the RBI Wall: An Insider’s View of the Central Bank

When Alpana Killawala joined the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) the Bank’s communicationdepartment was in its nascent stage. ‘Evolution of communication function in the Reserve Bank ofIndia is in a way Alpana’s story’ remarked one of the then executive directors of the central bank.Over the course of a career spanning more than two decades she skilfully navigated the challengesof managing the central bank’s communication including handling communication during some ofthe major crises such as the Harshad Mehta scam and reforms like the liberalization of the Indianeconomy in the 1990s.<br><br><i>A Fly on the RBI Wall</i> is a repository of anecdotes from Alpana’s time at the RBI—a no-holds-barred account of her journey at the nation’s central bank. She doesn’t hesitate to call out her limitations or the institution’s but also never forgets to give credit where it is due. At one level the book talks about the RBI as an institution and how it evolved in the last 25 years as India undertook its journey into economic and trade reforms. At another level she gives a peek into the minds of thegovernors all eminent scholars under whom she worked. Students of communication can gleanvaluable lessons from Alpana’s narrative.