List of governors of the Reserve Bank of India

Governor of the Reserve Bank of India
Incumbent Shaktikanta Das, IAS since 12 December 2018
Appointer	Government of India
Term length	Three years
Constituting instrument	Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934
Inaugural holder	Sir Osborne Smith (1935–1937)
Formation	1 April 1935; 86 years ago (1935-04-01)
Deputy	Deputy Governors of the Reserve Bank of India
Salary	₹ 2,50,000
Website	rbi.org.in

The Governor of the Reserve Bank of India is the chief executive officer of India's central bank and the ex-officio chair of its Central Board of Directors. Indian Rupee currency notes, issued by the Reserve Bank of India, bear the Governor's signature. Since its establishment in 1935 by the Government of India, the RBI has been headed by twenty-five governors. The Governor of Reserve Bank of India is a member of the Strategic Policy Group headed by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. It is a crucial wing of the National Security Council.^{[clarification needed]}

The term of office typically runs for three years and can, in some cases,^[vague] be extended for another two years.

The inaugural officeholder was the British banker Sir Osborne Smith, while Sir C. D. Deshmukh was the first native Indian governor. Holding office for over seven years, Sir Benegal Rama Rau was the longest-serving governor, while Amitav Ghosh's 20-day term is the shortest. The bank's fifteenth governor, Dr Manmohan Singh, later became India's thirteenth prime minister. Shaktikanta Das is the twenty-fifth governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 12 December 2018.

List of Governors of the Reserve Bank of India[]

List of governors of the Reserve Bank of India

No.	Officeholder	Portrait	Term start	Term end	Term in office	Background	Prior offices	References
1	Osborne Smith		1 April 1935	30 June 1937	2 years, 90 days	Banker	Managing Governor of the Imperial Bank of India	[1]
2	James Braid Taylor		1 July 1937	17 February 1943	5 years, 231 days	Indian Civil Service (ICS) officer	Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India Controller of Currency	[2]
3	C. D. Deshmukh		11 August 1943	30 June 1949	5 years, 323 days	ICS officer	Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India Custodian of Enemy Property
4	Benegal Rama Rau		1 July 1949	14 January 1957	7 years, 197 days		Ambassador of India to the United States Ambassador of India to Japan Chairman of Bombay Port Trust
5	K. G. Ambegaonkar		14 January 1957	28 February 1957	45 days		Finance Secretary
6	H. V. R. Iyengar		1 March 1957	28 February 1962	4 years, 364 days		Chairman of the State Bank of India
7	P. C. Bhattacharya		1 March 1962	30 June 1967	5 years, 121 days	Indian Audit and Accounts Service officer	Chairman of the State Bank of India Secretary in the Ministry of Finance
8	Lakshmi Kant Jha		1 July 1967	3 May 1970	2 years, 306 days	ICS officer	Secretary to the Prime Minister of India
9	B. N. Adarkar		4 May 1970	15 June 1970	42 days	Economist	Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund
10	Sarukkai Jagannathan		16 June 1970	19 May 1975	4 years, 337 days	ICS officer	Executive Director at the World Bank
11	N. C. Sen Gupta		19 May 1975	19 August 1975	92 days		Banking Secretary
12	K. R. Puri		20 August 1975	2 May 1977	1 year, 255 days		Chairman and managing director of the Life Insurance Corporation
13	M. Narasimham		3 May 1977	30 November 1977	211 days	Career Reserve Bank of India officer	Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India
14	I. G. Patel		1 December 1977	15 September 1982	4 years, 288 days	Economist	Director of the London School of Economics Deputy Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India
15	Manmohan Singh		16 September 1982	14 January 1985	2 years, 120 days		Secretary in the Ministry of Finance Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India
16	Amitav Ghosh		15 January 1985	4 February 1985	20 days	Banker	Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India Chairman of the Allahabad Bank
17	R. N. Malhotra		4 February 1985	22 December 1990	5 years, 321 days	Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer	Finance Secretary Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund
18	S. Venkitaramanan		22 December 1990	21 December 1992	1 year, 365 days	IAS officer	Finance Secretary
19	C. Rangarajan		22 December 1992	21 November 1997	4 years, 334 days	Economist	Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India
20	Bimal Jalan		22 November 1997	6 September 2003	5 years, 288 days		Finance Secretary Banking Secretary Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India
21	Y. Venugopal Reddy		6 September 2003	5 September 2008	4 years, 365 days	IAS officer	Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India
22	D. Subbarao		5 September 2008	4 September 2013	4 years, 364 days		Finance Secretary Member-Secretary of the Economic Advisory Council of the Prime Minister
23	Raghuram Rajan		4 September 2013	4 September 2016	3 years, 0 days	Economist	Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India Chief Economist of International Monetary Fund
24	Urjit Patel		4 September 2016	10 December 2018	2 years, 98 days		Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank
25	Shaktikanta Das		12 December 2018	Incumbent	3 years, 43 days	IAS officer	Member of the Fifteenth Finance Commission Sherpa of India to the G20 Economic Affairs Secretary Revenue Secretary	[3][4][5]

References[]

External links[]

• Official RBI site's Governors page
• Reserve Bank of India – About Us: List of Governors (Present one first)