R Gandhi appointed Deputy Governor of RBI

Gandhi was Executive Director of the Reserve Bank before being elevated to the post of Deputy Governor

The government has appointed R Gandhi as deputy governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Gandhi (58) has been handed over a three year term, and replaces Anand Sinha who retired from his post in January. Prior to this Gandhi was an executive director of the central bank.

A deputy governor could be appointed for a maximum of 5 years or till the age of 62 whichever is earlier.

Gandhi will get most of the portfolios that Sinha was looking after like the department of banking operations and development – a department instrumental in forming guidelines for the new bank licence process.

Apart from DBoD, Gandhi will be in-charge of Non-Banking Supervision, Urban Banks, Expenditure and Budgetary Control, Information Technology, among othes.

“Having joined the Reserve Bank of India in 1980, Shri Gandhi has built, over these thirty three years, expertise and experience in varied fields which include, payment systems and information technology, financial markets operations and regulation, currency operations and management, personnel and human resources management, industrial credit and international banking,” a press release from RBI said.

RBI has the provision for four deputy governors. Traditionally, among the four deputy governors, two are promoted from within the ranks of RBI while one is an economist and the fourth one is a commercial banker. Apart from Gandhi, the other deputy governors are KC Chakrabarty, HR Khan and Urjit Patel. Chakrabarty will also complete his tenure in the last week of April and the government has already started the search for his successor.