RBI sprucing up its website, to make it more user-friendly

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is attempting to become more open to change not just in its policies, but it has now embarked upon collecting feedback to revamp its website in order to make it more helpful and user-friendly.

The central bank desires to make its website more common man-friendly. "Often if a lay person is going abroad and wants to know how much foreign exchange he can take ""although the information is there on the website"" he may not be able to locate it. We want more feedback from common people on how the site can be changed in order to suit their needs," said the RBI spokesperson.

Significant change has been effected in rules about a person carrying money while travelling abroad. A new window has also been opened by permitting Indians to invest upto $25,000 overseas.

The apex bank has put a hyperlink on its website (www.rbi.org.in) about a fortnight back inviting suggestions on how to improve its website. It has been receiving 7-8 suggestions a day from academicians, researchers, journalists among others.

The central bank is going to strengthen its internal search engine which has been burdened with increase in content. "There is going to be significant improvement in the search engine in order to make it more helpful," the spokesperson said.

There will also be a search engine for collecting statistical data which can enable one to search for date-wise and subject-wise information.

Interestingly, the central bank has received positive feedback on the presentation of the website. Users are happy with the 'look and feel' of the site, therefore nothing much will be changed on that front, she said.

The content of the website, now eight years old, is managed by internal staff and its technical management has been outsourced to Sify. The site receives an average of 5,400 hits a day.

Recently, RBI for the first time held a public discussion with bankers and institutional investors on the controversial draft guidelines on ownership in private sector banks in the country.

The guidelines had received adverse feedback when it was published in July 2004. The central bank is now preparing to come out with a second draft on the same with the suggestions incorporated.