Mumbai: A day after the Reserve Bank announced the resignation of deputy governor Viral Acharya, the central bank's employees association has called for a collegium of experts to select the new governor and deputy governors, so as to ensure autonomy of the central bank. Meanwhile, the Business Standard newspaper, which broke the story on Acharya’s exit, has said Sanjeev Sanyal -- Principal economic adviser to the Finance Ministry -- may be in the race for the deputy governor’s post. Sanyal was Deutsche Bank AG’s global strategist in Singapore until 2015. In the past few months he has made a case for lower real interest rates to support economic growth, the newspaper adds.
Another contender for the post may be Michael Patra — Executive director at the RBI, who is a member of the Monetary Policy Committee. All this while, he was reporting to Acharya.
Interestingly, ever since Governor Shaktikanta Das assumed office in December, Patra has voted for three successive rate cuts. According to the Indian Express, the aspirants for the post back in 2017 included JP Morgan Chase & Co. Chief India Economist Sajjid Chinoy and Aditya Birla Group’s Chief Economist Ajit Ranade. Both Chinoy and Ranade are part of a central bank panel set up to study the effects of an offshore rupee market and its impact on the currency and liquidity in the domestic market.
