Latest Challenge For Shaktikanta Das? RBI Officers Unhappy Due To Former Governor Urjit Patel’s Promotion Policy 

Reserve Bank of India’s officers are up in arms against the new promotion policy promulgated during former governor Urjit Patel’s tenure, reports Business Standard. Under the new scheme, promotions from Grade C up to grade E are reduced to 75 per cent of officers, from the earlier system of promoting 90 per cent of officers at these levels.

The new directive was released on 14 December, and RBI officers have been demanding a meeting with the new Governor Shaktikanta Das, to discuss an immediate revocation of the new policy.

RBI’s officer hierarchy has grades A to F, with A representing an assistant level officer, and F being the chief general manager. Promotions from A to B are merit-based, and from B to C are automatic. The controversy relates to promotions from grade C to D, and from D to E, as these are based on a bell-curve as per which 10 per cent of officers at the bottom were earlier denied promotions.

The new policy makes the bell-curve cut-off more stringent, with promotions of 25 per cent of bottom performers being halted. The old policy of promoting 90 per cent of officers to the general manager position was criticised for making the organisation extremely top heavy.

RBI officers have lambasted the new policy for not taking into account the fact that promotions at the organisation are not very frequent, and occur after a gap of several years. Grade B to C promotions take place after a period of seven years, while C to D and D to E promotions take five years each.

“The new performance appraisal system is unfair. The point of a bell curve and higher cut-off is that you need to increase the frequency of promotions, but that is not the case at RBI. The promotions fall due after a specific long period,” an RBI officer stated.