Around six months before his term ends, Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor Rakesh Mohan will be moving out of Mint Road to take up an assignment at Stanford University in the US.
Mohan, whose term was to end in January 2010, will leave RBI on June 10 to join as Distinguished Consulting Professor at the Stanford Centre for International Development. In a statement, RBI said that Mohan’s term was for a period of six months and he was due to take up his new assignment on June 15. He was in the reckoning for RBI Governor’s job last year.
The economist has had two terms as RBI deputy governor. He first served as deputy governor from September 9, 2002 to October 31, 2004, when he was appointed as secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs. Less than a year later he returned to the central bank and has been one of the four deputy governors since July 2, 2005.
Following Mohan’s departure, the government will have to start the search for another deputy governor. It is yet to appoint a replacement for V Leeladhar whose term ended in March, though Punjab National Bank Chairman and Managing Director K C Chakrabarty and Bank of India Chairman and Managing Director T S Narayanasami have been short-listed for the post.
Usha Thorat and Shyamala Gopinath are the two other deputy governors. As is the norm, an economist will replace Mohan.
Mohan is in-charge of monetary policy, financial markets and economic research and statistics. Recently, he was the chairman of the Committee on Financial Sector Assessment, which undertook a stress test of the Indian financial sector and prepared the roadmap for further strengthening of the sector.
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He also headed the G-20 Working Group on Enhancing Sound Regulation and Strengthening Transparency and the Committee on the Global Financial System’s (CGFS) Report on Capital Flows and Emerging Market Economies.
Mohan is an economics graduate from Yale University and received his master’s degree and a doctorate in economics from Princeton University. He is also a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London.
Before moving to the central bank, he has served in the government, including as economic advisor in the industry ministry. In addition, he was advisor to the Finance Minister and Chief Economic Advisor between January, 2001 and May 15, 2002. He also headed the expert groups on Railways and on commercialisation of infrastructure.
In a statement, RBI Governor D Subbarao said, “Rakesh has been recognised internationally for his expertise in macroeconomic issues and brought honour to RBI. Over the last several months, as I traversed a steep learning curve, I have grown to depend on him for advice and counsel. All of us in the RBI will miss Rakesh’s counsel, expertise and his disarming candour.”