Senior moments

For the second time in a row, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has avoided the unpleasant situation of a senior official reporting to a junior one. This happened this week when H R Khan was appointed the new deputy governor superseding three others, V K Sharma, V S Das and G Gopalakrishna. But Khan’s portfolios were allocated in such a way that the three do not have to report to him directly. A similar situation was avoided in February, when Anand Sinha was appointed deputy governor, superseding V K Sharma. As a result of this shuffling, RBI officials have raised the question: if seniority is so sacrosanct, why doesn’t the search committee, which is headed by the governor, simply recommend the senior-most person for the job?