Birla, Premji on RBI board

Azim Premji, chairman of the $1.76-billion Wipro, and Kumar Mangalam Birla, head of the Aditya Birla group, have been nominated as members of the central board of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

They are replacing Tata group Chairman Ratan Tata and Infosys Technologies Chairman and Chief Mentor N R Narayana Murthy who retired as directors of the central board. Both Tata and Murthy were members of the board since 2000.

The government, while reconstituting the apex bank's central board with effect from June 27, has re-nominated Y H Malegam, chartered accountant, H P Ranina, supreme court advocate, and A S Ganguly, member of investment commission and knowledge commission and also chairman of ICICI OneSource.

The other new members nominated to the RBI central board are Suresh Tendulkar, economist and member, Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council; U R Rao, former chairman of ISRO and chairman of research council, physical research laboratory, Department of Space; Lakshmi Chand, a retired IAS officials; Shashi Rekha Rajagopalan, consultant - co-operatives; Suresh Kumar Neotia, chairman, Ambuja Cement; A Vaidyanathan, Madras Institute of Development Studies; Man Mohan Sharma, former director, Mumbai University Institute of Chemical Technology; and D Jayawardanavelu, chairman and managing director, Laxmi Machine Works.

Mihir Rakshit, K Madhava Rao, V S Vyas, KP Singh, Amrita Patel, Shri Suresh Krishna also retired as members of the RBI central board.

The RBI's affairs are governed by the central board of directors. The board is appointed by the government in keeping with the Reserve Bank of India Act normally for a period of four years.

The board consists of the governor and a maximum of four deputy governors, 10 non-official directors and one director each from the four local boards.