The Reserve Bank of India was established on April 1, 1935, following the provisions of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934. Since then Reserve Bank of has been headed by 25 governors.
Here we are helping you to know the complete list of 25 RBI Governors along with their work tenure, details of the present Governor and Deputy Governors and the meaning and working of the RBI Governor.
[Note: The information is recently updated as on 12-12-2018]
You can check that you find in this article: -
RBI Governor - Roles/Duties & Power/Authority
Roles / Duties / Responsibilities of the RBI Governor in Indian Economy
Know About the Present RBI Governors
B.P. Kanungo (Deputy Governor)
Viral V. Acharya (Deputy Governor)
N. S. Vishwanathan (Deputy Governor)
List of the Past Governors of Reserve Bank of India
RBI Governor - Roles/Duties & Power/Authority
The Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is the chief executive of India's Central Bank and the ex-officio chairperson of its Central Board of Directors.
At present, the position is being held by Shaktikanta Das. He took over the position from Dr. Urijit Patel on 11th December 2018.
The first Governor of RBI was the Britisher Osborne Smith since its establishment in 1935 by the British colonial government. in the year 1943, C. D. Deshmukh was appointed as the first Indian Governor of RBI.
Roles / Duties / Responsibilities of the RBI Governor in Indian Economy
The RBI Governor is the custodian of the country's reserves and defenders of the external value of the currency. The importance and role of the RBI Governor can be assumed as he secures the monetary stability of the country and hence the day to day life of the Indian Citizens.
You can understand the role of RBI governor with the help of the points given below: -
RBI Governor is bankers' banker, as he is the banker to the Government and heads the Central bank of the country.
He bears the responsibility to maintain the financial stability for our economy.
The formulation of economic policies cannot be made without his involvement.
The economic issues and the financial system of the country is affected by the decisions he takes.
The parameters, on which the whole economic and financial system is functioning, is decided by him.
The currency notes we use, bear his signature and the monetary policy is controlled by him.
He issues licenses to open new private and foreign banks and manages their working.
He manages the interest rates on deposits and advances of the country.
He manages the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 that is related to maintain the foreign exchange market.
He monitors the issue and exchange of the currency and coins.
He also manages the credit to rural, agricultural and small-scale industries' sectors, also frames policies to support agriculture sector.
He make decisions to support national objectives.
New rules and regulations are continuously reviewed by him so that they could become more easy and helpful for the customers.
He also governs the Urban Co-operative banks.
The Poverty Alleviation Schemes set by the Government is also managed by him.
Powers of the RBI Governor
The RBI Governor carries many powers. We can understand them with the help of the following points: -
Banker’s banker
Heads all the commercial banks
Influence on micro and macro economies
Control over stock market
Signatures on currency notes
Control over monetary, currency and credit system
Know About the Present RBI Governors
Presently Shaktikanta Das is holding the post of Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The four Deputy Governors of RBI are Mr. B. P. Kanungo, Mr. Viral V. Acharya, Mr. N. S. Vishwanathan and Mr. M. K. Jain.
Let’s know more about them. Their details are as below: -
Shaktikanta Das (RBI Governor)
He is the present and 25th Governor of Reserve Bank of India.
He was appointed on 11th December 2018 after Dr. Urijit Patel.
He was earlier a member of the Fifteenth Finance Commission of India and India's Sherpa to the G20.
He is a retired 1980 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Tamil Nadu cadre.
He has also served as Economic Affairs Secretary of India, Revenue Secretary of India, Fertilizers Secretary of India.
Know More About Shaktikanta Das (25th RBI Governor)
B. P. Kanungo (RBI Deputy Governor)
B.P. Kanungo has taken charge as the deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India on 3rd April 2017.
He is appointed by following the retirement of deputy governor, R Gandhi.
He is a post graduate in Arts and a certified associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers.
He also holds a bachelor’s degree in law.
Kanungo is a career central banker and was appointed as RBI executive director on 1 March 2016.
He has been the incharge of the foreign exchange department, internal debt management department and department of government and bank accounts.
He has also held positions of regional director at the Jaipur and Kolkata offices of the Reserve Bank and has been the banking ombudsman for Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Viral V. Acharya (RBI Deputy Governor)
Mr. Acharya has been appointed as one of the four Deputy Governors of RBI on 23rd January 2017.
He is a C.V. Starr Professor of Economics at the Stern Business School of the New York University since 2009.
He is a 1995 graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Mumbai and earned a Ph.D. in finance from NYU-Stern in 2001.
He was the academic director of the Coller Institute of Private Equity at London Business School (LBS).
He also served as a senior Houblon-Norman Research Fellow at the Bank of England (summer 2008).
He has also been appointed to several international and national advisory councils such as SEBI, BSE, etc.
N. S. Vishwanathan (RBI Deputy Governor)
He is one of the present Deputy Governor of RBI.
He was appointed as deputy governor on 4th July 2016, succeeding H. R. Khan.
He served as Principal Chief General Manager in the Department of non-banking supervision at Reserve Bank of India.
He has been an Executive Director at Reserve Bank of India since April 2014.
He also served as a Director of Punjab National Bank from September 6, 2012, to May 31, 2013.
M. K. Jain (RBI Deputy Governor)
He is one of the present Deputy Governor of RBI.
He was appointed as deputy governor on 22nd June 2018.
He served as MD and CEO of Indian Bank from November 2015 to March 2017.
He has also served on several boards including Exim Bank, NIBM, IBPS and others.
He has served on several banking sector committees such as Secretary and Coordinator to Basant Seth Committee on Review and Revamp of Internal and Concurrent Audit System in Public Sector Banks (PSBs), Member on the Government-constituted committees on PIL on NPAs for submission to Supreme Court and redesigning Annual Performance Appraisal Reports of PSB officers.
List of the Past Governors of Reserve Bank of India
| S.No. |
Governor |
Tenure of Service |
| 1. |
Sir Osborne A. Smith |
1st April 1935 – 30th June 1937 |
| 2. |
Sir James Braid Taylor |
1st July 1937 – 17th February 1943 |
| 3. |
Sir Chintaman D. Deshmukh |
11th August 1943 – 30th June 1949 |
| 4. |
Sir Benegal Rama Rau |
1st July 1949 – 14th January 1957 |
| 5. |
K.G. Ambegaonkar |
14th 1957 – 28th February 1957 |
| 6. |
H.V.R. Iengar |
1st March 1957 – 28th February 1962 |
| 7. |
P.C. Bhattacharyya |
1st March 1962 – 30th June 1967 |
| 8. |
L.K. Jha |
1st July 1967 – 3rd May 1970 |
| 9. |
B.N. Adarkar |
4th May 1970 – 15th June 1970 |
| 10. |
S. Jagannathan |
16th June 1970 – 19th May 1975 |
| 11. |
N.C. Sen Gupta |
19th May 1975 – 19th August 1975 |
| 12. |
K.R. Puri |
20th August 1975 – 2nd May 1977 |
| 13. |
M. Narasimham |
2nd May 1977 – 30th November 1977 |
| 14. |
Dr. I.G.Patel |
1st December 1977 – 15th September 1982 |
| 15. |
Dr. Manmohan Singh |
16th September 1982 – 14th January 1985 |
| 16. |
A. Ghosh |
15th January 1985 – 4th February 1985 |
| 17. |
R.N. Malhotra |
4th February 1985 – 22nd December 1990 |
| 18. |
S.Venkitaramanan |
22nd December 1990 – 21st December 1992 |
| 19. |
Dr. C.Rangarajan |
22nd December 1992 – 21st December 199522nd December 1995 – 22nd November 1997 |
| 20. |
Dr. Bimal Jalan |
22nd November 1997 – 5th September 2003 |
| 21. |
Dr.Y.V.Reddy |
6th September 2003 – 5th September 2008 |
| 22. |
Dr. D. Subbarao |
5th September 2008 – 4th September 20115th September 2011 – 4th September 2013 |
| 23. |
Dr. Raghuram G. Rajan |
4th September 2013 – 4th September 2016 |
| 24. |
Dr. Urjit Patel |
4th September 2016 - 10th December 2018 |
| 25. |
Shaktikanta Das |
11th December 2018 onwards |
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