With RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan announcing that he will not be seeking a second term and will return to academia after his term ends on September 4, the focus is now on finding his successor.
So, who are the economists and bankers on the list?
Reuters reports that there are 7 names on the list,
The candidates reportedly are
1. Economist and academic Vijay Kelkar,
2. Former Deputy Governor of RBI Rakesh Mohan,
3. Former Chief Economic Adviser Ashok Lahiri,
4. Deputy Governor of RBI Urjit Patel,
5. SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya,
6. Former Deputy Governor of RBI Subir Gokarn and
7. NSE chairman Ashok Chawla.
Tamal Bandyopadhyay of Mint, a seasoned banking sector journalist, reports that
8. Securities and Exchange Board of India chairman U.K. Sinha,
9. Secretary, and department of economic affairs in the finance ministry, Shaktikanta Das
and Arundhati Bhattacharya are likely to be Rajan’s successors.
Meanwhile, India Today also drops in the names of
10. Kaushik Basu, Chief Economist, World Bank and
11. Parthasarthi Shome, former advisor to Finance Minister
So how will the selection process be done?
Bandopadhyay explains here,
“Even though the Appointments Committee is the official vehicle to do the job, typically, the Prime Minister’s Office chooses the governor with inputs from the finance ministry and the outgoing governor and, on most occasions, there is no written recommendation. The politicians of the ruling party play an important role in the selection but the corporate houses that normally try to influence the appointment of CEOs of commercial banks do not have a voice here, although they have their preferences. In its 81-year history, only once was a commercial banker appointed governor. By tradition, bureaucrats and economists are considered for this post”