Subbarao to handle monetary policy dept

RBI reshuffles dy governor, executive director's portfolio

Reserve Bank of India's governor D Subbarao has taken charge of the monetary policy department following completion of Subir Gokarn’s term as deputy governor. The government is yet to announce Gokarn’s successor. Gokarn’ term, who was looking after departments like monetary policy, financial markets and economic research and policy, among others, as deputy governor came to an end on Monday.

The central bank has reshuffled the deputy governor’s portfolio today. Following the reshuffle, HR Khan will look after the financial markets department, while KC Chakrabarty has been given additional charge of DICGC, Rajbhasha Department and Right to Information Division. Department of risk monitoring and communication has been allocated to Anand Sinha. The central bank has four deputy governors.

“Department of Economic and Policy Research, Department of Statistics and Information Management and Monetary Policy Department will report directly to the governor till further orders,” the RBI said in a press release today.

This is not the first time that the governor will be looking after the all important monetary policy department. In mid-2009 also, when Rakesh Mohan quit RBI to pursue academic interest, Subbarao was handling the monetary policy department till Gokarn was appointed in November.

The government has formed a search committee, which is headed by RBI governor and comprise of with other members like banking secretary DK Mittal, to choose Gokarn’s successor. Some of the names that are doing rounds are that of Urijit Patel – a consultant with Boston Consulting Group and Kalpana Kochhar, who recently joined back IMF after serving as the chief economist for south Asia with the World Bank.

In February, the term of one more deputy governor, Anand Sinha, will also come to an end. The RBI has requested the government to extend Sinha’s term by one year, who looks after banking operation and development.

The central bank has also promoted Deepali Pant Joshi to the executive director’s post. Joshi who was a chief general manager, will look after customer service and rural planning and credit departments under her new assignments. Joshi’s appointment comes after VK Sharma, one of the EDs of RBI retired on Monday.

Some of the existing portfolios of executive directors have been re-allocated. In the new scheme of things, executive director G Padmanabhan will now handle external investment and operations, while Vijay Bhaskar has been given financial markets. R Gandhi, who was in charge of external investment and operations, will now look after currency management, among others. The RBI has 9 executive directors.