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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is likely to have one more deputy governor in addition to the existing four. Since the existing laws will have to be amended for the appointment of an additional deputy governor, it has been proposed that an officer-on-special duty will be appointed with the rank of a deputy governor. “Candidates who are specialists in specific fields will be considered for the post,” RBI sources said.
RBI is also proposing three more executive directors (EDs) as a part of its move for an overall restructuring of the top-level positions in order to strengthen coordination among various departments.
At present, RBI has provision for four deputy governors. Two deputy governors are promoted from within the ranks of the central bank, while the third is an economist and the fourth a commercial banker. To be considered for the post of deputy governor, a candidate needs to be below 60 years. A deputy governor could be appointed for up to five years or till the age of 62, whichever is earlier.
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RBI has set up three committees — a committee on organisational restructuring headed by EDs B Mahapatra and Deepak Mohanty; a committee to review training and skill development headed by P Vijaya Bhaskar, another ED; and one on human resources headed by R Gandhi, recently promoted as deputy governor from the ED poss.
The Vijaya Bhaskar committee will also prepare the vision and policies for the future and one of the terms of references of the committee is to examine the need to set up an RBI institute to address gaps in the areas of training and learning.
According to sources, skill gaps in various departments will be identified keeping in view the evolving role of the department for the next 10 years. The committee will also recommend the role and remit of the RBI institute.
The central bank has proposed clustering of departments in five verticals — financial stability, banking services, monetary stability, services cluster and financial markets. The cluster approach has been proposed with a view to bringing in greater synergy in respect of banking regulation and supervision, simplifying processes and putting skills together.
Sources indicate, the change will be undertaken while ensuring least disruption and clarified the idea is not to downsize. In addition, lateral induction on contract basis, as and when necessary, has also been proposed. RBI governor Raghuram Rajan had identified five areas to strengthened the financial system. These are, monetary policy, new banks, broadening and deepening of financial markets, expanding access of financial to small borrowers and increasing banks' ability to deal with corporate distress.
After making significant progress in all these areas in a span of 8 months, the central bank has now taking initiative to strengthen its internal process, sources added.
