Anand Sinha set to get another year as RBI dy governor

Sinha, the architect of new bank licence norms, will be a key member of the central bank

 

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor Anand Sinha, who was to retire at the end of this month, is set to get a year’s extension, a government official told Business Standard.

“Orders to this effect (Anand Sinha’s extension) would be issued shortly,” a key official told Business Standard.

It would be the first occasion in recent times that a deputy governor continues in office beyond the age of 62. The appointment is for five years or till 62, whichever comes earlier. Sinha, now 62, was elevated to deputy governor in January 2011.

RBI Governor D Subbarao had requested the government to give a year more to Sinha. In charge of the department of banking operations and development, Sinha was among those who’d framed the final guidelines on new bank licences. The ministry expects RBI to issue licences to new players in the banking space by the end of 2013-14. Sinha will remain in office till February 28, 2014, if his term is extended. If so, he will be among the persons vetting the applications of bank aspirants, for which July 1 is the deadline.

Sinha joined RBI in 1976, after a master’s degree in physics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

Earlier this month, the government had appointed Urjit Patel as one of RBI’s deputy governors. Patel, in charge of the monetary policy department, replaced Subir Gokarn. RBI has four deputy governors, of which two are promoted from within its ranks, one comes from commercial banking and the other from the academic world.