Rakesh Mohan returns to RBI

Rakesh Mohan returned to the Mint Road on Saturday after spending an eight-month stint in the North Block as the economic affairs secretary, finance ministry.

Earlier, during Yashwant Sinha's tenure as finance minister, Mohan was chief economic advisor. He then took up an assignment with the Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC) before shifting to the central bank as deputy governor.

During his first stint as a deputy governor (between September 9, 2002 and October 30, 2004), Mohan was entrusted with the responsibility for monetary policy, internal debt management, exchange rate management, economic policy and research, statistics, RBI balance sheet and RBI budget. He is expected to oversee the same portfolio this time too.

As a deputy governor, Mohan was not happy with 'lazy' banking and came down heavily on commercial bankers for chasing government securities and not lending enough. He was also an advocate of low interest rates.

As co-chairman of the Joint Study Group on India-Singapore Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement, he played a constructive role in pushing for special concessions between the two countries with regards to the financial sector.

As secretary, economic affairs, finance ministry, Mohan was also a member of the Indian Space Commission and the Atomic Energy Commission.

He is an alternate governor of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.