Internship Diaries #46

Vaibhav Agarwal

Reserve Bank of India

I got an opportunity to do my internship from Reserve Bank of India, Lucknow. The Reserve Bank of India is the central bank of India, which controls the monetary policy of the country thereby controlling the supply of money and ensuring price stability. I was offered to choose a topic of my liking from a vast array of topics including financial inclusion, corporate debt, deepening of financial markets in India, Non-performing assets, foreign direct investment etc. 

Considering the impetus of the present government on the make in India initiative and the trillion dollar requirement of the infrastructure sector, the current environment called for a more focused approach towards improving foreign direct investment in the country and thus my topic of research for my internship was FDI in Emerging Market Economies: Determinants and Impact. Nine countries were identified as the Emerging market economies for this research work including BRICS countries along with Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea and Indonesia. Secondary data was collected from websites such as World Bank, IMF, DIPP and various government websites. The focus was on determining the factors responsible for FDI Inflows in India. Various factors were identified and a conclusive regression analysis was conducted to statistically establish there relevance to FDI inflows in the country. Also, Foreign Direct investment inflows in India were compared to corresponding inflows in other countries. Scope of further FDI inflow in India was established and it was seen that India is better poised as compared to other Emerging market economies to receive future FDI inflows. Also, using statistical analysis and past data, we tried to establish the future Inflows in India. As part of my final presentation, I got to submit my research findings to my mentor and also I got to give a power point presentation in the presence of the Regional director of Reserve bank of India, Lucknow.

As part of my internship, I got to work closely with some of the brilliant minds in the organization. These are the people who are largely responsible for steering the current economic and monetary direction of India. The insights I got into the macro economic factors that go into deciding the monetary direction of the country was a great learning experience. RBI has a great working culture where people are supportive of each other and always encourage a free flow of ideas. People there are always happy to share the immense knowledge base that they have developed over the years. Working in Reserve bank of India was without any doubt one of the best experience of my life.