#RajanEffect: RBI spruces up website, to use Twitter and Youtube to reach masses

The Reserve Bank of India, under the governorship of Raghuram Rajan, seems to be ushering in the new generation central banking in India. As part of a major image makeover, the banking regualtor has refurbsihed its website and announced plans to use Twitter and Youtube to reach out to masses. The RBI has said the refurbished site has all the information bifurcated functionwise. The second big difference is the much improved search, it has said, adding with much humility, “at least we think so but you be the judge”. [caption id=“attachment_2196886” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  New RBI website[/caption] More than the redone website, what is important is the central bank’s plans to take “small steps” into the social media. “We will now use Twitter (albeit one way) to send out alerts on the announcements we make and YouTube to place in public domain our press conferences, interviews of our top management, events, such as, town halls and of course, some films aimed at consumer literacy,” the annoucement on the site says. The central bank’s social media push comes at a time when e-commerce is gaining much traction in the country and also online frauds such as phishing are also on the rise. It had only last week cautioned the public against a fraudulent mobile app with an RBI logo which allows customers to check their account balance. A message being circulated on WhatsApp had with the title ‘All Bank Balance Enquiry No’ and has listed several banks with either a mobile number or call centre number. “The Reserve Bank wishes to clarify that it has not developed any such application. Members of public are, therefore, advised to use the application, if at all, at their own risk,” an RBI release had said. The social media presence of the RBI will help the central bank reach out to the tech-savvy new generation, who are the most vulnerable to such frauds. More over, the RBI is also sending out a message that it wants to be truly interactive. “Do feel free to give us your feedback by clicking on the feedback button on the right hand corner of the refurbished site,” the message on the site says. In keeping with the new strategy, the RBI has already active on Twitter and tweets out its releases, including that of auction results. So, if you are not yet following @RBI_Official, better start now, because next time if there is a rate cut you may come to know about it from Twitter, not TV channels. (Editor’s note: This story has been corrected. The earlier version had erroneously mentioned the RBI’s Twitter handle as @RBI_India and that its last tweet was on 18 September 2009.)