Mumbai: Reserve Bank of India Governor D Subbarao has exhorted the apex bank s staff in his new year message to convert present crisis into an opportunity, while maintaining that the crisis will be deeper and prolonged.

Don t "waste this crisis. We should learn from it, find out what went right and take appropriate corrective action," the RBI Governor said in his message.

"It is now clear that the global recession will be deeper, and the recovery longer than we had earlier anticipated," he said.

Appropriate corrective action should be taken, he said, adding that this was what would distinguish winners from losers. "It should be our endeavour to see that we are among the winners," Subbarao said.

The apex bank was facing an extraordinary challenge and the present global financial crisis had turned into a full-blown global economic crisis, he said.

Describing the on-going crisis as both a challenge and an opportunity, the RBI Governor said that while the challenge was because a lot was expected from the apex bank, the opportunity lay in the fact that here was a chance for the bank and its employees to show that they could rise to the occasion, think out of the box and act effectively.

"I am confident I will get best of analysis, advice and co-operation from each and every one of you in meeting this challenge head-on," he said.

Source : PTI