The Centre, which has not yet named the next Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, could make the announcement during the Monsoon Session of Parliament, scheduled to commence Monday. A statement in Parliament on the announcement is possible, according to a top government source.
Last month, following Governor Raghuram Rajan's unexpected announcement of his decision to not seek another term after his three-year tenure ends in the first week of September, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that a successor would be named shortly.
Long listDespite an unusually long list of probable candidates said to be under consideration, the official announcement was not made ahead of the start of the monsoon session. The list includes Deputy Governor Urjit Patel, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das, NITI Aayog Arvind Panagariya, India's Executive Director in the International Monetary Fund Subir Gokarn, World Bank Chief Economist Kaushik Basu, former Deputy Governor Rakesh Mohan, Sebi Chairman U.K. Sinha and State Bank of India head Arundhati Bhattacharya. If selected, Ms. Bhattacharya would be the first woman Governor of the RBI.
“Last time, in 2013, the then Finance Minister Mr. P. Chidambaram had issued an early, signed statement announcing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's approval for the appointment of Dr. Rajan...there is no news yet from the office of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his replacement, which does mean that now the Government will probably inform Parliament first,” said the source.
LobbyingAnother highly-placed official said that at least one of the short-listed candidates had politely expressed lack of interest in the job. At least two others were lobbying hard for it, he said.
If the government decides to give Mr. Rajan’s successor a one-month stint as officer on special duty (OSD) in the RBI,, as is the norm, the appointment will have to be made before August 3.
