Subbarao to keep monetary policy dept Gokarn term ends

RBI reshuffles portfolios of dy governors & executive director

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor D Subbarao has taken charge of the monetary policy department following the completion of Subir Gokarn’s term as deputy governor. The government is yet to announce Gokarn’s successor. The term of Gokarn — who was looking after monetary policy, financial markets and economic research and policy, among others — ended yesterday.

The central bank reshuffled the deputy governors’ portfolios today. It normally has four deputy governors. Following the reshuffle, H R Khan will look after the financial markets department, while K C Chakrabarty has been given additional charge of deposit insurance and credit guarantee corporation (DICGC), a subsidiary of RBI, rajbhasha department and right to information division. The department of risk monitoring and communication has been allocated to Anand Sinha.

“The 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,” RBI said today. This is not the first time the governor will be looking after the all-important monetary policy department. In mid-2009, 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 — headed by the RBI governor and banking secretary D K Mittal as one of the members — to choose Gokarn’s successor. Some of the names doing the rounds include Urijit Patel, a consultant with Boston Consulting Group, and Kalpana Kochhar, who recently rejoined the International Monetary Fund 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 come to an end. RBI has requested the government to extend Sinha’s term – who looks after banking operation and development – by a year.

The central bank has also promoted Deepali Pant Joshi to the executive director’s post. Joshi, who was a chief general manager, will now look after customer service and rural planning and credit departments. Joshi’s appointment comes after V K Sharma, one of the EDs, retired yesterday.

Some of the existing portfolios of executive directors have also 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 the charge of financial markets. R Gandhi, who was in charge of external investment and operations, will now look after currency management, among others. The RBI has nine executive directors.