Order soon to make Gokarn RBI deputy governor: FM

Subir Gokarn, chief economist for Asia-Pacific at global ratings agency Standard and Poor’s and a Business Standard columnist, is slated to be appointed as a deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee confirmed this today. Asked if an order appointing Gokarn had been passed, he said, “It will be done in due course.”

The central bank has four deputy governors handling different areas. The other three deputy governors are Usha Thorat, Shyamala Gopinath and KC Chakrabarty. The position of deputy governor (for economist) in RBI has been vacant since June, when Rakesh Mohan quit six months before the end of his five-year term to take up a teaching assignment at Stanford University in the US.

Gokarn is likely to be given the charge of monetary policy, financial markets, economic research and statistics — earlier handled by Mohan.