Despite all our collective experience and expertise, one thing is clear: we need to improve our understanding of the poor and of poverty. Who better to take us along the path of continuing education than Professor Abhijit Banerjee? Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming Prof. Banerjee to deliver the First Professor Tendulkar Memorial Oration on “Identifying the Poor”.
It will result in a financial cost to the Bank because, as the economy has recovered, interest rates have had to rise. As I will discuss later, this will mean that the interest paid on some of our liabilities will for a time be higher than the return we receive on our assets, and as a result the Bank will be making losses.