Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday held an hour-long discussion with Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the appointment of the new Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor, a post that will fall vacant on September 4.
Advertisement
“You will come to know the conclusion, not the process”, he said. In recent years, only the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government has given a five-year term to a governor, when it appointed Y V Reddy as RBI chief in 2003. With just over a fortnight to go for Raghuram Rajan’s 3-year term to end, an announcement is expected any day. “I’ve had great relationship with the old government and the people who matter now”, he said. The government is also in the process of selecting a new, six-member Monetary Policy Committee that will decide on interest rates.
A shortlist of possible successors was floated in the immediate aftermath of Rajan’s June 18 announcement that, in the ensuing weeks, has seen hopefuls drift in and out of contention.
In a letter to the RBI staff, Rajan shared his plans to re-enter the academic world, which is the University of Chicago where he served his term as a professor of Economics at the Booth School of Business, as reported by Financial Express.
When asked who could be the replacement for Dr Rajan, a senior official quipped, “There are many names”.
Gokarn is now an executive director at the International Monetary Fund while Patel was given a three-year extension in January.
Advertisement
Over the last few days, the names of former RBI deputy governor Subir Gokarn, current RBI deputy governor Urjit Patel, SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya have been doing the rounds. The Prime Minister picks the Governor in consultation with the Finance minister. Chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian is also said to be in the fray. He declined to comment on what was discussed at the meeting between Modi and Jaitley.
