New Delhi: N S Vishwanathan was appointed Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, replacing H R Khan who will retire next week. Vishwanathan, currently Executive Director at the central bank, was chosen by a search committee headed by Cabinet Secretary.
This is the first appointment done through this high-level panel.
All appointments of Deputy Governors to RBI were previously done by a panel headed by RBI Governor. But for the first time, a Deputy Governor’s appointment has been made through recommendations of the Financial Sector Regulatory Appointment Search Committee headed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha. This panel included RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan.
Rajan, who incidentally himself has said no to a second term after his current three-year tenure ends on September 4, had headed a search panel for appointment of Deputy Governors as early as this January that gave 3-year extension to Urjit Patel.
The central bank has four deputy governors – two from within the ranks (the other being R Gandhi), one commercial banker (S S Mundra) and an economist Urjit Patel who heads monetary policy department.