New RBI Governor Is Shaktikanta Das, Former Economic Affairs Secretary 

Ex-IAS officer of the 1980 batch, Shaktikanta Das, of Tamil Nadu cadre, was on 11 December declared RBI’s new governor, reports The New Indian Express. His selection was made by the Cabinet’s Appointments Committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Das replaces Urjit Patel, the outgoing governor of RBI, who put in his papers on Monday citing personal reasons.

The former bureaucrat has been given a term of three years. Finance Secretary A N Jha stated that Das has experience in the state government as well as the central government.

Das retired as Economic Affairs Secretary in May 2017, after overseeing the process of re-monetisation. Post-retirement, he served as India’s Sherpa at the G-20 and was also appointed to the 15th Finance Commission as a member.

He is a history graduate from St Stephen’s College of Delhi and had initially served in the Finance Ministry after the BJP came to office in 2014, later moving to the Economic Affairs department, where he worked closely on monetary policy.

The RBI is getting an ex-IAS governor after a gap of five years; the last bureaucrat to hold the post was D Subbarao, who left office in September 2013.