Hyderabad: Central bankers worldwide are known for their few words and meticulous sentence formulation to avoid any confusion that speculators could make use of, making most of them ‘boring’ speakers. There was one exception: to this rule among the recent heads of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) — Yaga Venugopal Reddy, popularly known as Y.V. Reddy. While he never let speculators cash in on his words, he was never boring. He brought rustic wisdom to the central bank and peppered press conferences with anecdotes. Like all other RBI governors, he wrote books on monetary matters.But, if he stopped with mere money without wisdom, how could he be Y.V. Reddy? So he has compiled ‘Work, Wisdom, Legacy: 31 Essays from India’. The book, which was released at the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) on Sunday, delves on profound questions on work, values, and the changing dynamics of professional life.The essays are from Shankar Acharya, P. Chidambaram, Shyamala Gopinath, Venkatraman Anantha Nageswaran, Arun Shourie, Yashwant Sinha, Usha Thorat, K.V. Kamath, Nayarana Murthy, among others. They address questions like the meaning of work, its purpose, the impact of technology on work life and values that shape life and contribute to success.In ‘God laughs and other reflections’, Dr Reddy stresses that intellect, industry (hard work) and integrity are integral to one’s work. One should work with someone who has imbibed at least two of these qualities.“Dr Reddy compiled the book for his grandchildren and all grandchildren, who face a dramatically altered world with dramatically altered technologies and social norms. But some things remain the same such as values and human relationships,” said Kavitha Saga, his daughter who assisted the compilation.Speaking at the event, Shyamala Gopinath, former RBI deputy governor, said, “We never felt discriminated against. I was mentored by Y.V. Reddy and he encouraged the women and youngsters to speak and put forth our views without hesitation.”B. Sambamurthy, chairman, NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India) recalled the role of Dr Reddy in devising UPI or Unified Payments Interface. “The brain behind developing the underlying infrastructure was given by him. He wanted it to be for public good and free of cost and cost effective. It is now being emulated by even the US.”
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