Chief economic adviser (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran and 16th Finance Commission secretary Ritvik Pandey were among the candidates interviewed on Wednesday by a selection panel headed by Cabinet secretary TV Somanathan for the post of a new deputy governor at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The appointee will replace Michael Patra, whose four-year term came to an end on Tuesday. Patra was in charge of the crucial monetary policy department; on Tuesday, deputy governor M Rajeshwar Rao was given the temporary charge of the department.
According to sources, the interviews for Patra’s successor began on Monday, and among the others being considered are Poonam Gupta, a former World Bank economist and part-time member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council; Chetan Ghate, former external member on the RBI’s monetary policy committee; Prachi Mishra, director and head of the Isaac Centre for Public Policy at Ashoka University; economist Ajit Ranade; and NR Bhanumurthy, director at Madras School of Economics.
Nageswaran is understood to have not applied for the post, but he was called by the panel for the interview. The move assumes significance that the CEA has recently pitched for a change in RBI’s inflation target to exclude food. His term as CEA is set to expire shortly. The Economic Survey 2024-25, lead-authored by Nageswaran, is to be presented in Parliament on January 31.
A six-member selection panel — which includes RBI governor Sanjay Malhotra and Somanathan — held the first round of interviews on January 13 in New Delhi and held another on Wednesday, the sources said.
The new deputy governor will replace Patra, who was one of the three central bankers on the six-member monetary policy committee which decides interest rates.
Usually, RBI reserves two of the deputy posts for internal appointees, one for a commercial banker, and another for both external and internal candidates. The three existing deputy governors are: M Rajeshwar Rao, T Rabi Sankar, both from within the central bank, and Swaminathan Janakiraman, former managing director of State Bank of India.
With inputs from Bloomberg.