Government reappoints Shaktikanta Das as RBI Governor for three years

Mangalore Today News Network / NDTV

New Delhi, Oct 29, 2021: The government on Friday extended Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das’ term for another three years. "The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the reappointment of Shaktikanta Das as RBI Governor for a period of three years beyond December 10, 2021 or until further orders, whichever is earlier," read an official statement.

 

Mr Das was previously the Department of Economic Affairs Secretary at the Finance Ministry and was appointed as the chief of the Reserve Bank on December 11, 2018, for three years.

With the second term, Mr Das will head the central bank till December, 2024.

He has held important positions in the areas of finance, taxation, industries and infrastructure.

Mr Das has also served as India’s Alternate Governor in the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), New Development Bank (NDB) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

During his long tenure in the Finance Ministry, he was directly associated with the preparation of as many as eight Union Budgets.

Mr Das is a postgraduate from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University.
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He replaced Urjit Patel, who surprisingly resigned amid growing differences with the government over a range of subjects including the RBI’s autonomy.

He is the first Governor to get an extension under the current BJP government as earlier ones either resigned or decided to go back to academics.

The RBI kept the key benchmark rates unchanged for the eighth consecutive time in its October monetary policy review and promised to maintain the status-quo on rates "as long as necessary to revive growth."

The repo rate, after being cut by 115 basis points (bps) in early 2020, has been held at a record low of 4 per cent since May 2020, while the reverse repo rate was reduced by 155 bps to 3.35 per cent.

Repo rate is the rate at which the RBI lends money to banks; while reverse repo rate is the rate at which the central bank borrows money from banks.