RBI Grade B Officer Examination: Comprehensive Syllabus and Preparation Guide

Introduction

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Grade B Officer Examination is a prestigious and competitive exam that requires thorough preparation. This article provides a detailed syllabus and essential reference materials for aspiring candidates.

A. Officers in Grade 'B' (DR) - DEPR-2023: Job Requirement, Scheme of Selection and Syllabus

(i) Job Requirements:

(ii) Scheme of Selection:

(viii) Syllabi:

Phase I - Paper I Objective Type (on Economics)

• Microeconomics (Theories of consumer's demand; Production; Market Structures and Pricing; Distribution; and Welfare Economics)
• Macro Economics (Theories of Employment, Output and Inflation; Monetary Economics; IS-LM Model; Schools of Economic Thought)
• International Economics (Theories of International Trade; Balance of Payments; Exchange Rate Models)
• Theories of Economic Growth and Development (Classical neo-classical approaches to economic growth and major theories of economic development)
• Public Finance (Theories of taxation and public expenditure and Public Debt Management)
• Environmental Economics (Green GDP, Environmental Valuation, Environmental policy instruments)
• Quantitative Methods in Economics (Mathematical and Statistical Methods for Economics, Ordinary Least Square Regression)
• Current developments in Indian Economy (Growth, inflation, poverty, unemployment, financial sector developments, external sector developments, fiscal developments, agriculture, industry, infrastructure, and services)

Phase I - Paper II Descriptive Type (on English)

The paper on English shall be framed in a manner to assess the writing skills including expression and understanding of the topic.

Phase II - Paper I Descriptive Type (on Economics)

Module on Quantitative Methods in Economics

• Mathematical Methods in Economics: Differentiation and Integration, Optimisation, Sets, Matrices, Linear algebra and Linear programming
• Statistical Methods in Economics: Measures of central tendency and dispersions, Probability, Time series, Index numbers.
• Econometrics and advanced Applications: Regression analysis, Panel data econometrics, Time Series econometrics, Basics of Bayesian Econometrics, Basic application of Artificial Intelligence/ Machine Learning

Module on Indian Economy – Policy and Trends

• Fiscal policy in India: Evolution, scope and limitations, current trends
• Monetary Policy in India: Evolution, Functions of the Reserve Bank of India, Monetary-Fiscal coordination, Inflation targeting, Operating framework of Monetary Policy, Current trends
• Banking and financial sector development in India: Banks and other constituents of Indian financial markets and related developments, Current trends
• Inflation in India: Trends and drivers
• External sector developments in India: Exchange rate management, external debt, Balance of payments, Current trends

B. Officers in Grade 'B' (DR) – DSIM- 2023: Job Requirement, Scheme of Selection and syllabus

(i) Job Requirements:

To undertake collection, compilation, analysis and interpretation of data on banking, corporate and external sectors; Modelling and forecasting of inflation, growth and other important macroeconomics indicators; Analytical studies involving statistical/econometric models in the operational areas of interest to the Reserve Bank; Planning, designing and organizing sample surveys; maintaining technology-driven centralized reporting system and Data warehouse for information management /dissemination; and Development of methodology for the measurement and estimation of variables and improvement of the database of various sectors of the economy. Application of Data Science/Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning techniques to derive insights from large volume data.

(ii) Scheme of Selection:

(iii) Syllabi:

Standard of papers would be that of Master's Degree examination of any Central University in India.

Paper-I:

Questions would cover Probability: Definition of Probability, Standard distribution, Large and small sample theory, Analysis of Variance, Estimation, Testing of Hypotheses, Multivariate analysis and Stochastic Processes.

Paper-II:

Questions would cover (i) Probability and Sampling, (ii) Linear Models and Economic Statistics, (iii) Statistical Inference: Estimation, Testing of hypothesis and Non-parametric Test, (iv) Stochastic Processes, (v) Multivariate analysis, (vi) Econometrics and time series, (vii) Statistical computing; and (viii) Data Science, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Techniques. There will be sufficient choice for candidates to attempt the required number of questions from any three or more of the above eight groups.

Paper-III:

English: The paper on English shall be framed in a manner to assess the writing skills including expression and understanding of the topic.

Suggested Reading Material:

For Phase - II (Paper I - Micro and Macroeconomics Modules)

Microeconomics:

• Hal R. Varian; Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach, 9th edition, 2019. The workbook, Workouts in Intermediate Microeconomics, by Hal R. Varian and Theodore C. Bergstrom may be used for problems.
• A. Koutsoyiannis; Modern Microeconomics, International Edition.
• C.E. Ferguson and J.P. Gould; Microeconomic Theory.

Macroeconomics:

• Dornbusch, Fischer and Startz; Macroeconomics, McGraw Hill, 13th edition, 2018.
• Olivier Blanchard; Macroeconomics, Pearson Education, Inc., 8th edition, 2021.
• Brian Snowdon and Howard R. Vane; Modern Macroeconomics: Its Origin, Development and Current State, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, 2005.

International Economics:

• Paul R. Krugman, Maurice Obstfeld and Marc Melitz; International Economics: Theory and Policy, Pearson Education, 12th edition, 2022.
• Dominick Salvatore; International Economics: Trade and Finance, Wiley, 11th edition, 2014.

Public Finance:

• Richard A. Musgrave and Peggy B. Musgrave; Public Finance in Theory and Practice, McGraw Hill, 5th edition, 2017.
• Stiglitz, J.E. and Jay K. Rosengard Economics of the Public Sector, W.W. Norton & Company, 4th edition, 2015.

Growth and Development:

• A.P. Thirlwall; Economics of Development: Theory and Evidence, Macmillan, 9th edition, 2011.
• Debraj Ray, Development Economics, Oxford University Press, 2009.
• Basu, K., Analytical Development Economics, The Less Developed Economy Revisited, MIT Press, 2003.

For Phase - II (Paper II - Modules on Quantitative Methods in Economics and Indian Economy)

Mathematical Methods in Economics:

• Simon, Carl P. and Lawrence Blume; Mathematics for Economists, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1994.
• Kevin Wainwright and Alpha C. Chiang; Fundamental Methods of Mathematical Economics, 4th edition, McGraw-Hill, 2005.

Econometrics:

• D. N. Gujarati and D.C. Porter; Essentials of Econometrics, McGraw-Hill, 4th edition, 2010.
• Wooldridge, J.M; Introductory Econometrics: A Modern Approach, Cengage Learning, 7th edition, 2022.

Statistics:

• N. G. Das; Statistical Methods, McGraw-Hill, 2008.
• Miller, I., Miller, M.; John E. Freund's Mathematical Statistics with Applications, 8th edition, Pearson, 2021.

Indian Economy:

• Economic Survey, Government of India, Various Issues
• India Development Report, Oxford University Press, Various Issues.
• Uma Kapila, Indian Economy since Independence, Academic Foundation, Various Issues.
• RBI Annual Report – Last two years.
• RBI Report on Trends and Progress of Banking in India – Last two years.
• Monetary Policy Reports – Last two years.
• Financial Stability Report – Last two years.

For Paper I and Paper II:

Theory of Probability and Probability Distributions:

• Rohatgi, V. K. and Saleh, A.K. Md. E. (2005). An Introduction to Probability and Statistics
• Goon, A.M., Gupta, M.K. and Dasgupta. B. (1985). An Outline of Statistical Theory Vol- I & II
• Sukhatme, P.V., Sukhatme, B.V., Sukhatme, S. and Asok, C. (1984). Sampling Theory of Surveys with Applications
• S. C. Gupta, V. K. Kapoor (2000). Fundamentals of Mathematical Statistics
• W.G. Cochran (1977). Sampling Techniques

Linear Models and Economic Statistics:

• P.G. Hoel, S.C. Port and C.J. Stone (1971). Introduction to Statistical Theory
• A.M. Mood, F.A. Graybill and D.C. Boes (1974). Introduction to Theory of Statistics
• Rao, C.R. (1973). Linear Statistical Inference and its Applications
• Bartoszynski, R. and Bugaj, M.N. (2007). Probability and Statistical Inference
• Gibbons, J.D. and Chakraborti, S. (1992). Nonparametric Statistical Inference

Stochastic Processes:

• Bhat, B.R. (2000). Stochastic Models- Analysis and Applications
• Prabhu, N.U. (2007). Stochastic Processes: Basic Theory and its Applications
• J. Medhi (2009). Stochastic Process

Multivariate Analysis:

• Anderson, T.W. (2003). An Introduction to Multivariate Statistical Analysis
• Arnold, Steven F. (1981). The Theory of Linear Models and Multivariate Analysis
• Giri, N.C. (1977). Multivariate Statistical Inference, Academic Press
• Alvin C. Rencher (2012). Methods of Multivariate Analysis

Econometrics and Time Series:

• Johnston, J. (1984). Econometric Methods
• James H. Stock and Mark W. Watson (2019). Introduction to Econometrics
• J.D. Hamilton (1994). Time Series Analysis
• William H. Greene (2018). Econometric Analysis

Statistical Computing and Data Science, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Techniques:

• Sheldon M. Ross (2012). Simulation
• Trevor Hastie, Robert Tibshirani, Jerome Friedman (2009). The Elements of Statistical Learning, Data Mining, Inference, and Prediction, Second Edition
• Charu C. Aggarwal (2018). Neural Networks and Deep Learning

C. Manner of conduct of examinations for GR B (DR)-DEPR/DSIM:

DEPR:

• The examination will be conducted on two days i.e. Phase I (Paper I & II) (Online Examination) on July 16, 2023 and Phase II (Paper I & II) (Online / Written Examination), will be held separately on September 02, 2023 (date to be confirmed in admit cards).
• Phase I - Paper I - Objective Type (on Economics) will be conducted online and comprise multiple choice questions. Paper II - Descriptive Type (on English) to be typed with help of keyboard.
• Phase II - Paper I & II will be a descriptive Type (on Economics) pen / paper based examination where the questions will be displayed on computer screen, answers to be written on paper.

DSIM:

• The examination will be conducted on two days i.e. Paper I on July 16, 2023 and Paper II & III will be held separately on August 19, 2023 (date to be confirmed in admit cards).
• Paper - I (Objective type on Statistics) will be conducted online and comprise multiple choice questions.
• Paper - II (on Statistics) will be a descriptive type pen/paper based examination where the questions will be displayed on computer screen, answers to be written on paper.
• Paper –III (English) will be of descriptive type where the candidates will be expected to type out answers on a computer.

The Board reserves the right to modify the exam dates and time entirely at its discretion.