Hence, a high level of fiscal discipline is needed to ensure that solvency concerns do not spiral out of control. For monetary policymakers focussing on maintaining price stability, the question of how to safeguard public finance is thus of particular concern. As so often, Mervyn King put it most aptly when he said that “Central banks are often accused of being obsessed with inflation.
*  *  *  At the outset, let me congratulate Additional Secretary for the theme of this conference “Enabling Urban Microfinance” which is truly appropriate as it chooses to bring to centre stage issues of urban poverty. The scale of urban poverty in India is staggering.