Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Deputy Governor Viral Acharya has resigned from his post six months before his term was scheduled to end. Acharya will now return to academia and move back to New York University Stern School of Business in August as CV Starr Professor of Economics, as per a Business Standard (BS) report. He was originally to join back in February 2020.
Acharya put in his papers a few weeks before RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) that was held on June 6 and is set to leave office by the end of July.
Acharya is currently RBI’s youngest Deputy Governor post economic liberalisation, having joined the RBI in January 2017.
RBI confirmed his resignation on Monday. "A few weeks ago, Dr. Acharya submitted a letter to the RBI informing that due to unavoidable personal circumstances, he is unable to continue his term as a Deputy Governor of the RBI beyond July 23, 2019. Consequential action arising from his letter is under consideration of the Competent Authority," Yogesh Dayal, Chief General Manager, said in a statement uploaded on the RBI website.
“A schoolteacher once told me: When your work speaks for itself, do not interrupt,” Acharya told BS when he was pressed for further comments.
Acharya’s exit comes over six months after Urijit Patel resigned as the RBI Governor. Along with Patel, Acharya too fought for the independence of the RBI as tensions mounted between the RBI and the government.
In fact, in October last year, Acharya had given a 90-minute long speech on the need to preserve the RBI’s autonomy and warned of the wrath of markets, should that be compromised. He, at the time, said that he had Urijit Patel’s backing.
According to an Economic Times report, Acharya has been uncomfortable since the exit of Urjit Patel from the RBI. His academic views of the financial system too were in contrast with the others. The report also states that Acharya has had differences of opinion on growth and inflation with the current Governor in the last two monetary policy meetings. Another strong divergence between the two was over the fiscal deficit in the country and accounting for the same, something that came up in the last monetary policy meeting.