RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan today said that the time has come for the government to de-regulate the diesel prices as the global crude oil prices are falling.

He added that falling inflation is consistent with Reserve Bank of India forecast. The RBI governor added that there was a need to change the management appointment process in public sector banks in order to bring more transparency.

The RBI is holding talks with the government to improve governance in public sector banks, adding that the problems that have recently emerged in some bank scandals were due to outsourced project evaluation.

According to Rajan, the macroeconomic indicators of the country are improving and inflation has been coming down. He, however, added that the economy still needs investment growth to pick up.

Meanwhile, the fall in international oil rates has brought domestic diesel retail price at par with cost, the oil ministry is still to move to Cabinet seeking deregulation of the nation's most consumed fuel.

The NDA government has adopted the policy of previous UPA of raising diesel rates by up to 50 paise a litre every month to bridge the gap between cost and retail prices.

Under-recovery or the gap between retail selling price and the cost of imports touched an all-time low of 8 paise a litre this month. It has happened by the monthly increases and softening in international oil rates. The reduction is prices of diesel is set to help consumers with diesel-powered cars and will also help bring down inflation in the economy.