According to RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, banks would start reporting on the new data warehouse CIMS

Commercial banks will start reporting on the newest next-generation data warehouse from the central bank, the Centralized Information Management System (CIMS), before urban cooperative banks and non-banking financial institutions, according to Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday.

Das was speaking at the RBI headquarters’ 17th Statistics Day conference, which also commemorates Prof. Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, the most renowned expert in the discipline, and falls on his birthday.

He announced the launch of the new system and said that the current CIMS, the central bank’s next-generation data warehouse, would begin by reporting by commercial banks and will subsequently be expanded to include urban cooperative banks (UCBs) and non-banking financial businesses (NBFCs).

Das said that, coincidentally, the first weekly statistics supplement—the RBI’s weekly data release on its own operations and on changes in the banking and financial markets—was prepared and processed in the CIMS for the week ending June 23. This was done with the CIMS coming online.

According to the governor, the new system would facilitate online statistical analysis by outside users and disseminate more data for public use. He also said that regulated firms will also have access to their previous data and their evaluation of the new system’s quality criteria.

In 2002, the Reserve Bank built the Central Database Management System (CDBMS), its first enterprise-wide data warehouse. As of November 2004, a significant portion of this data system was made available to the public as the database on the economy or on the DBIE site.

This site has developed over time from a simple data store to an information processing and management system, which has turned it into the Reserve Bank’s platform for data distribution. The DBIE continues to be highly well-liked by scholars, analysts, and the general public both domestically and abroad, particularly students. In May 2023, it garnered over 2.5 lakh hits.

In accordance with the Reserve Bank’s Regulations Review Authority 2.0 (RRA 2.0) suggestion, he said, the CIMS would soon deploy a system-based submission for the last of the email-based reporting.

Das said that the RBI teams would provide assistance to reporting entities for a seamless transition whenever required since any systematic shift with numerous dimensions involving a large number of entities is susceptible to teething problems. In the next months, the new system will also contain a number of additional functions.

Das pointed out that the Reserve Bank was a trailblazer in establishing its data warehouse more than 20 years ago.

He praised Prof. Mahalanobis’ contribution to the country’s macro-financial data system and said that the eminent statistician was crucial in institutionalizing statistics as a field of study and a tool for formulating public policy. He always treated the topic as an applied science that might answer issues about everyday living.

His practical use of statistics and data, such as his study of flood data spanning 50 years, had an impact on the building of the Hirakud dam in Odisha and the second five-year plan model, which placed a strong emphasis on fast industrialization. All of them show how statistics may solve complicated issues and advance society.