Economic Survey 2019: Examination for RRB to be Conducted in 13 Regional Languages, Says Nirmala Sitharaman

Thanks to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, as IBPS RRB aspirants will now be able to appear in the exam in the regional language of their choice. The Finance Minister revealed that recruitment for Officers Scale-I and Office Assistants (multi-purpose) in Regional Rural Banks (RRB) will be held in 13 languages, apart from English and Hindi.

The Finance Minister tabled the Economic Survey 2019 in Parliament today, ahead of the Union Budget 2019 on July 5, with the Survey pegging a GDP growth rate of 7 per cent for FY20, up from 6.8 per cent in the previous fiscal. The Economic Survey 2018-19, prepared by the Chief Economic adviser Krishnamurthy Subramanian, projected the state of health of the Indian economy, outlining the challenges it faces.

During the tabling of the survey, Sitharaman revealed that the examination for regional rural banks will be conducted in multiple languages.

The Finance Minister's office took to Twitter to announce the same, sharing a video of Sitharaman speaking in the parliament, along with the caption, "Examination for Regional Rural Banks to be conducted in 13 regional languages: Smt @nsitharaman."

The official Twitter handle, @nsitharamanoffc further added that the decision was taken to "provide a level playing field & to expand employment possibilities for local youths."

They wrote, "it has been decided that examination for direct recruitment of officers (Scale-I)& OfficeAssistant inRRBs will be conducted in 13 regional languages in addition to English & Hindi."

During the speech, the Finance Minister revealed that apart from English and Hindi, candidates will now be able to give examinations in Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Konkani,

Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Odiya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. She revealed, “The candidates, will in addition to English and Hindi also have the option to choose the regional language of the state that they have opted for from the above languages as their major mode of examination.”

Chief Economic Adviser Krishnamurthy Subramanian, who prepared the Economic Survey, said the theme of report is to enable shifting gears to accelerate and sustain a real GDP growth rate of 8 per cent and thereby achieve the vision of making India a $5 trillion economy.

Furthermore according to him, "The cover design of Economic Survey2019 of “inter-linked gears” captures the idea of investment, savings, exports, growth and jobs being complementary and therefore forming components of a “Virtuous Cycle” with investment as the key driver."

Notably, Nirmala Sitharaman is the first full-time woman Finance Minister of the country. Earlier, Indira Gandhi had held finance as an additional portfolio for a short duration when she was the Prime Minister of India.