RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das reappointed for three years by the government

Shaktikanta Das, the governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), was reappointed by the government on Friday for another three years, until December 2024. The cabinet nominations committee, which includes Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, made the decision last evening. 

"The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the reappointment of Shaktikanta Das as RBI Governor for a period of three years beyond December 10, 2021 or until further orders, whichever is earlier," states an official statement.

Mr. Das was appointed Governor of the Reserve Bank of India in December 2018 for a three-year term. He was previously the Finance Ministry's Economic Affairs Secretary.

He is the first RBI Governor to receive an extension under the current BJP government; previous governors either resigned or returned to academics.

He's worked in banking, taxation, industry, and infrastructure, among other fields.

Mr. Das has also served as India's Alternate Governor at the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the New Development Bank (NDB), and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) (AIIB).

He was intimately involved in as many as eight Union Budgets during his extended career in the Finance Ministry.

Mr Das is a postgraduate from Delhi University's St. Stephen's College.

He took over from Urjit Patel, who resigned abruptly in 2018 due to increasing disagreements with the government on a variety of issues, including the RBI's autonomy.

In its October monetary policy review, the RBI held key benchmark rates constant for the eighth time, promising to keep rates steady "as long as necessary to revive Growth rate."

The repo rate has been held at a record low of 4% since May 2020, after being slashed by 115 basis points (bps) in early 2020, while the reverse repo rate was cut by 155 bps to 3.35 percent.

The repo rate is the rate at which the Reserve Bank of India lends money to banks, while the reverse repo rate is the rate at which the RBI borrows money from banks.