Dr Duvvuri Subbarao takes charge as RBI governer

Anchoring inflationary expectations, maintaining financial and price stability, pursuing financial sector reforms and, finally, pushing through real sector reforms will be the key priorities for Dr Duvvuri Subbarao, who took over as the 22nd governor of the Reserve Bankof India for a three year term starting September 5, 2008.

Speaking to mediapersons after the joining ceremony at the RBI headquarters, Dr Subbarao placed on record his admiration and respect for the outgoing governor Dr Y V Reddy . " He has served the organisation with dignity and intellectual integrity for five years and it will be a challenge for me to leave up to the higher standards set up by him", stated Dr Subbarao.

Dr Subbarao takes over from Dr Reddy at a time when the inflation rate has shot up above 12 per cent and interest rates both for deposit mobilisation and lending for the banks. Consequently, the interest rates for companies as well as the retail sector has increased sharply,  acting adversely for the economic growth, said market players.

Prior to this, Dr Subbarao was the finance secretary in the Ministry of  Finance, Government of India. The other assignments held by him earlier had been secretary to the Prime Ministers’ Economic Advisory Council ( 2005-07), lead economist in the World Bank ( 1999-2004), Finance Secretary to the Government of Andhra Pradesh ( 1993-98) and joint secretary in the department of Economic Affairs , Ministry of Finance , Government of India ( 1988-1993).

In public finance , he was involved in the initiation of fiscal reforms at  the state level and had managed a flagship study on decentralisation across major countries of East Asia including China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines and Cambodia.

Reportedly, he is credited with financial turnaround of Andhra Pradesh in late nineties when the state had slipped into an unprecedented fiscal crisis.