Thomas Cook general manager A Saha gives a presentation to students at IIT, Patna, on Saturday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Feb. 5: With a view to provide basic information about foreign exchange (forex) facilities available for students/ researchers going abroad, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in association with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Patna, today organised an interactive session programme titled “Forex for you”.

Students from IIT, NIT and other engineering colleges attended the session.

A panel of experts comprising G. Mahalingam, regional director, RBI Patna, S. Maurya, deputy general manager, RBI, Mohan Yadav, general manager, RBI, Naveen Chandra, AGM, SBI, and A. Saha, GM, Thomas Cook answered students queries over financial issue.

Students were inquisitive about a number of things such as how to unravel black money, how to control inflation, how monetary value is determined, what will be the future of the economy, implications of artificial depreciation of Chinese yuan, what quantum of forex could be taken away to a foreign country and how much of it could be remitted back, whether an engineering graduate can undergo training in RBI, can banks be asked to reduce the interest rate on education loans etc.

“The experts broadly spoke about the various facilities relating to foreign exchange available to students and to the general public for different purposes such as travel, study, employment, business, medical needs etc,” Raj Rajesh, chief economist with RBI, Patna, and a research scholar at IIT, Patna, told The Telegraph.

In response to a question regarding the future of Indian economy, Mahalingam said: “India is managing its affairs pretty well. Fiscal deficit is well managed, the only concern is the inflation which is because of supply side problem and RBI can interfere to control it only when it is a demand driven.”

“Please don’t worry about India’s economy. You (students) go abroad for study and comeback as we want you to be in the country,” Mahalingam told students.