The Government today appointed Shaktikanta Das the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, within 24 hours of the dramatic resignation of Urjit Patel as the RBI chief.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved Das’ appointment for a three-year period. An order was issued by the Department of Personnel and Training to this effect on Tuesday, even as the Government accepted the resignation of Urjit Patel..

Das, who retired as Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) in 2017, will be the 25th Governor of the RBI.

Das was the face of the Government during the demonetisation exercise and used to brief the media almost on a daily basis between November 9 and December 31, 2016.

Given the stormy relationship between the Finance Ministry and the RBI in recent times, Das may be able to smoothen the ruffled feathers as he has been on the RBI board in his capacity as the DEA; the DEA is seen as the bridge between the Finance Ministry and the RBI.

Though a post-graduate in History, number-cruncher Das was involved in the preparation of over half-a-dozen Budgets both during the UPA and the NDA dispensations. He was also instrumental in preparing the ground for the Goods and Services Tax.

A Tamil Nadu cadre IAS officer, Das superannuated in 2017 after 37 years of service in the State as well as at the Centre. Post-retirement, the Centre appointed him the Sherpa for the G-20 summit and also nominated him on the 15th Finance Commission.

This is not the first time an IAS officer is being appointed RBI Governor. D Subbarao, Raghuram Rajan’s predecessor, was a former civil servant, as were YV Reddy, RN Malhotra and S Venkitaramanan.

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