Appointment of Shaktikanta Das, a retired IAS official, has predictably attracted a lot of criticism. There are three main layers of criticism. One is that he is not a hardcore economist. Second, he was supportive of demonetisation which 'failed to deliver intended results'. Last, his integrity is suspect.
He is the 25th Governor. Among these 25, only six have been 'economists'. RBI was established in 1935. The first economist to become a Governor was B.N.Adarkar. He was a stopgap pending appointment of a new Governor. He was earlier a Deputy Governor. He remained as Governor only for 42 days till he was replaced by S.Jagannathan, a career civil servant. This happened in 1970. (The Governor with the shortest tenure was Amitav Ghosh for 20 days in 1985 pending assumption of office by R.N.Malhotra., a bureaucrat. Ghosh was a commercial banker and then a Deputy Governor of RBI.)
There have so far been only six economists donning the mantle of RBI Governorship, namely Adarkar, I.G.Patel, Manmohan Singh, C.Rangarajan, Raghuram Rajan and Urjit Patel. There is no study to indicate that economist-Governors performed better than others.
P.Chidambaram has argued that Das was an advocate of demonetisation and that his appointment comes so soon after the appointment of another proponent of demonetisation, Krishnamurthy Subramanian, as the Chief Economic Adviser to GOI. Chidambaram argues that this means the government appoints only those who are favourably disposed towards government decisions. Politically this is what all governments do. Which government would want an ideologically inconvenient person in a key position? Chidambaram's alleged role in appointment of chairmen of various banks makes one wonder if this is not a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
The third criticism is voiced by Subramanian Swamy. He doubts Das's integrity in the light of his alleged complicity in and connivance at Chidambaram's various alleged misdemeanours.
These are controversial times. Therefore, each and every proposal is likely to be viewed as a colourable exercise.
He is the 25th Governor. Among these 25, only six have been 'economists'. RBI was established in 1935. The first economist to become a Governor was B.N.Adarkar. He was a stopgap pending appointment of a new Governor. He was earlier a Deputy Governor. He remained as Governor only for 42 days till he was replaced by S.Jagannathan, a career civil servant. This happened in 1970. (The Governor with the shortest tenure was Amitav Ghosh for 20 days in 1985 pending assumption of office by R.N.Malhotra., a bureaucrat. Ghosh was a commercial banker and then a Deputy Governor of RBI.)
There have so far been only six economists donning the mantle of RBI Governorship, namely Adarkar, I.G.Patel, Manmohan Singh, C.Rangarajan, Raghuram Rajan and Urjit Patel. There is no study to indicate that economist-Governors performed better than others.
P.Chidambaram has argued that Das was an advocate of demonetisation and that his appointment comes so soon after the appointment of another proponent of demonetisation, Krishnamurthy Subramanian, as the Chief Economic Adviser to GOI. Chidambaram argues that this means the government appoints only those who are favourably disposed towards government decisions. Politically this is what all governments do. Which government would want an ideologically inconvenient person in a key position? Chidambaram's alleged role in appointment of chairmen of various banks makes one wonder if this is not a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
The third criticism is voiced by Subramanian Swamy. He doubts Das's integrity in the light of his alleged complicity in and connivance at Chidambaram's various alleged misdemeanours.
These are controversial times. Therefore, each and every proposal is likely to be viewed as a colourable exercise.
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