This is how these BITS Goa undergrads competed against IIMs at the RBI Policy Challenge 2019

RBI Policy Challenge is a national-level competition held by the Reserve Bank of India which was started in 2016 by the former RBI governor, Dr. Raghuram Rajan to spread knowledge about the framework of the monetary policy, banking issues & financial matters among the undergraduate as well as postgraduate students. Here is our journey to becoming the Regional Winners of RBI Policy Challenge 2018-19.

The competition was held in three tiers in the RBI offices: Regional, Zonal & National level with all rounds judged by the top RBI officials & economists. Our topic was “Analysis of RBI Financial Stability Report 18-19”. We had to analyze a 112-page document, which had a mine of complex charts, graphs, statistics, and financial jargon about the risks in the banking sector.

The complexity of this report was the reason that pushed us beyond our capabilities to not only understand those thorny concepts in this short span but also to learn how to actually work as a team.

The ultimate strategy to compete with the best

For efficient utilization of time and resources, we divided the report into 4 parts. We decided that everyone will be reading the whole report at least once, and each person will master a topic — this strategy worked fairly well. We were done by reading the complex report and researching in the first 7 days and were confident on the parts assigned to each one of us.

Through numerous all-night discussions and brainstorming sessions, we were finally able to put together a 15-slide deck and a 30-page report. Then, we were all set for the Zonals!

However, after facing tough competition only 6 teams, one each from IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Raipur, IIM Indore, IIM Nagpur, SPJIMR, and BITS Goa went into the finals of RBI Policy Challenge 2018-19. And because of obvious reasons, we considered all the teams from IIMs as the strong competitors, since they were studying Business and Finance on the post-graduate level and we were the only under-graduate team in that round.

We were then invited to pick a chit and based on that, we were allotted the 5th slot for presentation. Being the second last team to present, we were already anxious about how time will pass. Each team was asked to sit in separate halls so that no one can witness others’ presentations. Finally, our turn came and we presented our idea to a 200+ audience. We were probably the youngest in the entire hall. It was a surreal experience!

Because we are a UNIT!

Overall, the competition had a great quality of judgment, excellent structure, and was obviously organized by the most reputed body of India - RBI! This competition not only shaped us to understand the critical banking sector of India but also motivated us to further study this subject matter in its totality. Beyond the technical knowledge that we were able to capture, RBI Policy Challenge 2018-19 also made us come together on a personal level and get the emotional psychic of working closely in tough situations.

It was a great learning experience and we have memories to cherish forever. We had a lot of conflicts, but at the end of the day, each one of us had one thing in mind - that we need to grow as a team!

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