Mumbai: The Narendra Modi government is likely to conduct interviews on 22 August for the post of deputy governor in the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), sources told ThePrint. The position has been lying vacant for over four months after N.S. Vishwanathan retired on 31 March.
Vishwanathan, who retired three months ahead of schedule due to health reasons, was in charge of portfolios including banking regulation, which formulated important policies like stressed asset resolution and bank licences.
The vacancy will be filled up with an internal candidate from the central bank.
All 12 RBI executive directors were made eligible for the interview. However, only eight will be appearing for the interview. Four of them — the chief financial officer of RBI, two from specialised cadre and one of the executive directors of the supervisory department — have opted out.
Also read: Fiscal deficit, coronavirus make India’s high-yielding bonds the least popular in Asia
The contenders
M. Rajeshwar Rao — who was appointed as executive director on 7 November 2016 and is the most senior — is the top contender for the post, according to the sources.
As an executive director, Rao looks after the department of statistics and information management, financial markets operation, and international department.
A career central banker, he joined the RBI in 1984, has exposure in various aspects of its functioning. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Cochin. He has also worked as the Banking Ombudsman in New Delhi, and in the RBI’s regional offices at Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chennai and New Delhi.
Lily Vadera, the executive director looking after regulation, and Rabi Narayan Mishra, one of the executive directors in the supervisory department, are also in contention, said the sources.
How the process works
The cabinet secretary-led Financial Sector Regulatory Appointment Search Committee will interview the candidates.
Typically, RBI has four deputy governors, two of whom are selected from within the central bank ranks. Out of the remaining two, one is a commercial banker and the other is an economist.
At present, B.P Kanungo is the deputy governor from within the RBI. The other two deputy governors are M.K. Jain, who was a commercial banker, and Micheal Patra, an economist and from the central bank’s specialised cadre.
The appointment of the new deputy governor, who will look after both banking regulation as well as regulation for non-banking finance companies, assumes significance at the time when a one-time loan restructuring scheme has been announced.
An external committee headed by veteran banker K.V. Kamath has been appointed to suggest the contours of the debt recast and the committee will also validate debt cast proposals of banks which are more than Rs 1,500 crore.
The department of regulation will study the recommendations of the committee before announcing the final guidelines of the scheme.
Also read: Why RBI has picked KV Kamath to restructure loans and kick the can down the road