T. Rabi Sankar, New Deputy Governor, RBI
The government has appointed Reserve Bank of India (RBI) executive director T Rabi Sankar as the fourth Deputy Governor of the central bank. Rabi Sankar was in charge of the payments system, fintech, information technology and risk management at the RBI. He succeeds B.P. Kanungo, who has retired on 2 April after getting a one-year extension. Rabi Sankar now joins Mahesh Kumar Jain, Michael Patra and Rajeshwar Rao as deputy governors. An M Phil in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, he has handled all critical departments at the RBI, including debt management, which was the domain of Kanungo. A career central banker, he joined the RBI in 1990 and has worked in various positions. His areas of expertise include exchange rate management, reserves portfolio management, public debt management, monetary operations and development, regulation and surveillance of financial markets, payment systems and IT infrastructure. He has served as an IMF Consultant (2005-11) on developing government bond markets and debt management. He represented RBI on international forums like Bank for International Settlements and various internal and external expert committees and working groups. In addition to his professional career at RBI, he is Chairman, Indian Financial Technology and Allied Services (IFTAS), member of Board of Directors, ReBIT and member of Governing Council IDRBT.
After the appointment of Rabi Sankar as deputy governor, the RBI has redistributed the portfolios of the deputy governors. Rabi Sankar has been given portfolios such as the department of currency management, external investments and operations, government and bank accounts, information technology, payment and settlement systems, foreign exchange department, internal debt management and right to information division. Michael Patra will head portfolios such as department of economy and policy research, department of statistics and information management, deposit insurance and credit guarantee corporation, financial markets operation, financial markets regulations, financial stability unit, monetary policy department, and international department. M Rajeshwar Rao will be handling regulation, communication, enforcement, inspection, legal and risk monitoring department.
