Here's why Shaktikanta Das' appointment is good news for financial markets

Das and a possible course correction in monetary policy should allow the tailwinds of structural reforms of the past few years to push growth to its higher potential without boosting inflation

Critics have called the resignation of India’s former central bank chief Urjit Patel and appointment of former Finance Ministry official Shaktikanta Das as his replacement a blow to the hard-won independence of the Reserve Bank of India. Such fears are overblown. The changeover at the RBI is something else entirely: an opportunity to rebuild the central bank’s badly damaged credibility with financial markets.

While Patel deserves credit for the RBI’s efforts to clean up bad loans at India’s public-sector banks, his supervision of monetary policy often frustrated and confused economists and market participants. Under Patel, the RBI’s media and analyst