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D Subbarao appointed new

RBI Governor

The government has appointed current Finance Secretary Duvvuri Subbarao as the next Reserve Bank of India, or RBI, Governor.

Dr Subbarao, a 1972 batch officer of the Indian Administrative Service, or IAS, takes over as RBI Governor from September 5 for a period of three years.

He is currently the Finance Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, or DEA. Dr Subbarao had been designated as Secretary, DEA, following the vacancy arising from the retirement of Finance Secretary, Ashok Jha.

Prior to this assignment, Dr Subbarao was Secretary to the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council.

An alumnus of IIT Kanpur, Dr Subbarao did his Masters in Economics from Ohio State University in 1978 and was a Humphrey Fellow at MIT during 1982-83. He has a Ph.D in Economics from Andhra University.

Dr Subbarao has also worked as Joint Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs during 1998-93, when economic reforms were initiated. He also served as Finance Secretary of the Government of Andhra Pradesh during 1993-98.

How do fellow bankers rate Dr Subbarao?

According to CNBC-TV18’s Vivian Fernandes, Dr Subbarao’s colleagues rate him highly for his intellectual ability, administrative experience, intellectual perspective, and people management.

MBN Rao, Former CMD, Canara Bank, feels that Dr Subbarao brings with him a lot of experience. “He has been at the helm of affairs and has a ringside seat in respect to fiscal policies at the government. Being the Finance Secretary he has been closely associated with fiscal as well as Monetary Policy measures taken by the government. He brings in rich experience from his stint at the World Bank. Dr Subbarao will be able to steer the Indian financial and banking system with his tremendous expertise. The country is fortunate to have one more experienced person coming to the helm of affairs at the Reserve Bank.”

Who will be the next Finance Secretary?

CNBC-TV18 Analyst Nupur Acharaya said it could be Pradeep Bhide who is the current Revenue Secretary or Civil Aviation Secretary.Ashok Chawla

On the present RBI Governor:

The present RBI Governor, YV Reddy was from the 1964 IAS batch. He served as the RBI Deputy Governor from 1994 to 2001. Reddy was also Executive Director with the International Monetary Fund. He became the 21st RBI Governor and served from September 2003-08.

On YV Reddy’s exit, MBN Rao said he has done a good job. “He has also been one of the main people responsible for giving a very firm footing to the Indian financial sector. Today, the Indian finance sector is very well renowned and one of the soundest banking systems in the world. He definitely deserves full credit and the Governor and his team have done exceedingly good job in trying to contain inflation.”

What happens to present RBI Deputy Governor Rakesh Mohan?

CNBC-TV18 Analyst Vivian Fernandes feels he can stay on as Deputy Governor or if the government wants to accommodate him he could move on to the World Bank where Gyanendra Kumar’s term is coming to an end in the next two months.

CNBC-TV18 Analyst Vivian Fernandes feels the next Finance Secretary could be Additional Secretary Sindhushree Khullar, “There are a couple of other names doing the rounds. One is Pradeep Bhide of the 1973 batch who is the current Revenue Secretary and Ashok Chawla, Former Additional Secretary in the Finance Ministry and currently Secretary in the Civil Aviation Ministry."

Finance Ministry officials said Rakesh Mohan is likely to move to the World Bank. Mohan was in the reckoning for RBI Governor post, the officials added. The officials added that Arvind Virmani, Chief Economic Advisor in the Finance Ministry, may replace Rakesh Mohan.