RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das Named 'Governor Of The Year' At Central Banking Awards 2023

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das has been selected as the 'Governor of the Year' for 2023 by Central Banking, an international economic research journal.

Das has been praised by the publication for his leadership role at the Central bank during his tenure, which began in December 2018, and has been marked by a series of grave challenges, starting with the collapse of a major non-bank firm, moving through the first and second waves of the coronavirus, and then, in 2022, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its inflationary impact.

He is the second RBI governor after Raghuram Rajan in 2015 to win the award.

Das's leadership at RBI was instrumental in implementing crucial reforms, innovative payment systems, and growth-oriented measures during the Covid-19 pandemic.

"IL&FS became the first NBFC to be resolved under a revised bankruptcy code, which the former governors fought hard to deliver. Other aspects took place solely under Das’s tenure, including the roll-out of liquidity rules for non-banks and closer supervision of key players in the sector. A new scale-based regulatory framework for NBFCs entered force in October 2022," the publication stated.

"The Covid crisis threatened to throw the RBI’s work on the financial sector clean-up off-track. As the scale of the shock became clear, politicians and financiers clamoured for the central bank to allow banks to rollover and restructure troubled loans, rather than forcing firms into bankruptcy. This Das allowed, but only within tightly controlled parameters: banks could roll over problem debts only if they went sour after the pandemic began, and the regulatory forbearance was strictly time limited," it added.

An economy as complex as India’s will likely never be free from challenges but, as Das faces up to the remainder of his second term, he can take pride in major achievements so far, it said.

"The economy came through one of the greatest threats it has ever faced with relatively minimal scarring; India’s payments technology has rocketed to the global frontier; the financial sector is more secure than it has been for years," the publication said.