Chakrabarty's responsibilities cut in RBI portfolio shuffle

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has shuffled the portfolios of its top-level functionaries, reducing the responsibilities of Deputy Governor K C Chakrabarty amid reports that he was speaking out of turn.

In an order which comes into effect from today, the RBI took away four out of the eight departments that Chakrabarty was looking after.

Earlier, he was in charge of eight departments, but will now look after only customer services, IT, inspection and Raj Bhasha.

As per the order, the four departments were divided between the three other deputy governors.

When contacted, an RBI spokesperson said, "Transfers and portfolios changes are routine matter."

However, the order came after an RBI official -- reported to be Chakrabarty -- recently criticised the RBI monetary policy, saying the central bank needed to be more aggressive in reining inflation.

Earlier, Chakrabarty was frequently talking to the media on various aspects of the monetary policy and the need to contain rising prices.

The other three deputy governors -- Usha Thorat, Shyamala Gopinath and Subir Gokarn -- have now been entrusted with additional responsibilities.

Besides her existing departments, Gopinath will look after the Department of Payments and Settlement Systems.

Gokarn gets the additional responsibility of administration, personnel management and human resources development, besides the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation.

Thorat gets the Rural Planning & Credit Department and Urban Banks Department in addition to her existing seven departments, including housekeeping.

Before joining the RBI, Chakrabarty was Chairman and Managing Director of Punjab National Bank.