The Point Man From Fin-Min

- Lola Nayar

Before the dust has settled on Urjit Patel’s resignation from the post of the central bank chief, the government has rushed to appoint former economic affairs secretary and current member of the finance commission, Shaktikanta Das, as the next RBI governor for three years.

The choice is not very surprising as Das was the crisis manager in the finance ministry when Patel, barely two months into his tenure as RBI governor, was pushed to implement demonetisation without adequate provisions to handle the crisis that followed. Having worked closely with finance minister Arun Jaitley in the planning and roll out of several reforms including the GST, Das should not have any problem in responding to the needs of the government, now gripped with anxiety after the negative poll verdict from three crucial states. Das is the government’s representative at the Group of 20 summit and has also served as the government nominee on the RBI’s central board of directors.

Patel’s not so unexpected decision to quit, though he has cited “personal reasons” in an official statement, was owing to government pressure for not moving forward on some of the decisions taken at the last board meeting.