Deputy RBI Governor R Gandhi to look after monetary policy dept

The senior most Deputy Governor in the Reserve Bank, R Gandhi, was given the charge of monetary policy department, including forecasting and modeling unit, which was earlier under new Governor Urjit Patel.

The Reserve Bank "revised the portfolios" of its Deputy Governor, on a day of handover of governorship from Raghuram Rajan to Patel.

Government is yet to appoint a Deputy Governor in place of Patel, who has been elevated as the Governor.

The Deputy Governor handling monetary policy department is also likely to be nominated to the new rate setting panel MPC (Monetary Policy Committee). The panel will also have three members to be appointed by the government, besides RBI Governor and one more person from the central bank.

Other portfolios of Gandhi include currency management, economic policy and research, external investments and operations (DEIO), government and bank accounts, financial market operations, and foreign exchange.

Deputy Governor S S Mundra will look after banking supervision, human resource management, financial inclusion and development, statistics and information management, and RTI.

Deputy Governor N S Vishwanathan's portfolio include banking regulation, communication, financial stability unit, corporate services, and risk monitoring department.

Meanwhile, in a low-key affair, Patel begun his innings as RBI's new Governor with a private off-media 'handover' ceremony today -- a marked departure from his predecessor Raghuram Rajan announcing big-bang reforms on his first day itself three years ago.

Dr Patel, as he is commonly referred to as, has worked closely with several central and state government high-level committees.

These include the Task Force on Direct Taxes, the High Level Expert Group for Reviewing the Civil and Defence Services Pension System, the Prime Minister's Task Force on Infrastructure, the Group of Ministers on Telecom Matters, the Committee on Civil Aviation Reforms and the Ministry of Power's Expert Group on State Electricity Boards.