(12 December 2018 – India) Former finance bureaucrat Shaktikanta Das has been appointed to head the country’s central bank, after Urjit Patel unexpectedly resigned following clashes with the government over the institution’s autonomy.
A former economic affairs secretary, Mr Das has worked closely with the central bank and oversaw the demonetisation in late 2016.
The new governor, appointed for a three-year term, will be tasked with either siding with the government, or defending the central bank’s independence.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government wants tighter supervision over the bank’s functioning and to extract more capital to meet the budget deficit. The administration also wants the RBI to loosed curbs on some of the weakest banks to ensure lending continues and economic growth gets a boost.