Former RBI guv Shaktikanta Das appointed as 2nd principal secretary to PM

The appointment will be co-terminus with the term of the Prime Minister or until further orders, whichever is earlier, according to the appointment committee of the cabinet

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The central government on Saturday appointed former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das as the second principal secretary (PS-2) to the Prime Minister. The appointment is effective from the date Das assumes office.

 

PK Mishra is the other principal secretary.

 

“The appointment will be co-terminus with the term of the Prime Minister or until further orders, whichever is earlier,” the appointment committee of the cabinet said in a notification.

 

Das was the longest-serving governor of the RBI in seven decades, demitting office after completing a second three-year term in December 2024. Sanjay Malhotra, who was the revenue secretary in the finance ministry, replaced Das as the 26th RBI governor.

 

Before his central bank appointment, Das served as the economic affairs secretary and India’s Sherpa to the G20 from November 27, 2017, to December 11, 2018.

 

Born in 1957 in Odisha, Das completed his bachelor's and master's degrees in History from Delhi University’s St Stephen's College. He also holds a postgraduate degree in public administration from the University of Birmingham, UK. 

 

Das joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1980 and was assigned to the Tamil Nadu cadre. He held various positions in the state government, including as commissioner of commercial taxes, and principal secretary of industries, before moving to the central government and serving as joint secretary in the Ministry of Finance.

 

Das received an A+ grade in the Central Bank Report Cards 2024, a global ranking, marking his second consecutive year of recognition.

 

Under Das, India’s foreign exchange reserves touched a record high of $705 billion by the end of September 2024. The country’s foreign exchange reserves were at $635.7 billion for the week ended 14 February, 2025, latest data released by RBI showed.

 

RBI’s surplus transferred to the Central government (In Rs crore)

2018-19	1,75,987.73
2019-20	57,127.53
2020-21	99,122.00
2021-22	30,307.45
2022-23	87,416.22
2023-24	2,10,873.99

Source: RBI

Das is credited with helping the financial sector navigate the once-in-a-century Covid-19 pandemic. The timely steps taken by the central bank by not only cutting the policy repo rate but also making liquidity available to the financial sector and announcing a moratorium on loan repayment was seen as both timely and necessary.

 

However, there is a view that Das postponed interest rate hikes after the sharp cuts during the pandemic for too long, which was finally increased after the Russia-Ukraine war in Europe broke out in 2022. For the first time since the inflation targeting framework was put in place in 2016, RBI missed the inflation mandate as average inflation stayed over 6 per cent for three consecutive quarters in 2022.

 

RBI did not cut interest rates as long as Das was the  governor, despite calls made for it by industry. Das pointed to the headline inflation’s durable alignment with the target of 4 per cent for a rate cut as the rationale behind his decisions to hold rates steady. 

 

Earlier this month, however, the RBI's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in Malhotra’s first policy review unanimously decided to cut the policy repo rate – after a gap of almost 5 years – by 25 basis points to 6.25 per cent citing the expected alignment of inflation to the target. One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.