The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)is the highest banking authority of India Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is the central bank of the country. RBI is a statutory body. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was established in 1935, by the British colonial government. It is responsible for the printing of currency notes and managing the supply of money in the Indian economy. The Governor of the Reserve Bank of India is the Chief Executive Officer of the Central Bank of India and the Ex-officio Chairman of its Central Board of Directors. The Indian note issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) bears the signature of the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. The RBI Governor is appointed by the government of India for a three-year term and can be re-elected for the position. Initially, the ownership of almost all the share capital was in the hands of non-government shareholders. So in order to prevent the centralization of the shares in few hands, the RBI was nationalized on January 1, 1949.
RBI Governors:
| SL NO | NAME | TENURE |
| 1 | Sir Osborne Smith | April 1, 1935 – June 30, 1937 |
| 2 | Sir James Braid Taylor | July 1, 1937 – February 17, 1943 |
| 3 | Sir C.D. Deshmukh | August 11, 1943 – June 30, 1949 |
| 4 | Sir Bengal Rama Rau | July 1, 1949 – January 14, 1957 |
| 5 | K.G. Ambegaonkar | January 14, 1957 – February 28, 1957 |
| 6 | H.V.R Iyengar | March 1, 1957 – February 28, 1962 |
| 7 | P.C Bhattacharya | March 1, 1962 – June 30, 1967 |
| 8 | L.K. Jha | July 1, 1967 – May 3, 1970 |
| 9 | B.N. Adarkar | May 4, 1970 – June 15, 1970 |
| 10 | S. Jagannathan | June 16, 1970 – May 19, 1975 |
| 11 | N.C. Sen Gupta | May 19, 1975 – August 19, 1975 |
| 12 | K.R. Puri | August 20, 1975 – May 2, 1977 |
| 13 | M. Narasimham | May 3, 1977 – November 30, 1977 |
| 14 | I.G. Patel | December 1, 1977 – September 15, 1982 |
| 15 | Manmohan Singh | September 16, 1982 – January 14, 1985 |
| 16 | Amitav Ghosh | January 15, 1985 – February 4, 1985 |
| 17 | R.N. Malhotra | February 4, 1985 – December 22, 1990 |
| 18 | S. Vpnldraramanan | December 22, 1990 – December 21, 1992 |
| 19 | C. Rangarajan | December 22, 1992 – November 21, 1997 |
| 20 | Bimal Jalan | November 22, 1997 – September 6, 2003 |
| 21 | Y.V. Reddy | September 6, 2003 – September 5, 2008 |
| 22 | Duvvuri Subbarao | September 5, 2008 – September 4, 2013 |
| 23 | Raghuram G. Rajan | September 4, 2013 – September 4, 2016 |
| 24 | Urjit Ravindra Patel | September 4, 2016 – December 11,2018 |
| 25 | Shaktikanta Das | December 12, 2018 – to date |
Important Points of RBI Governors:
- The first Indian Governor of RBI was C.D. Deshmukh
- Sir Benegal Rama Rau is the longest-serving Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. He worked for 7 years from 1st July 1949 to 14th January 1957.
- Amitav Ghosh is the shortest-serving Governor of the Reserve Bank of India only for 20 days starting from January 15, 1985, to February 4, 1985.
- Manmohan Singh is the only RBI Governor, who also served the country as the Indian Prime Minister
- Urjit Ravindra Patel was the Governor of the RBI during demonetization in 2016
- V. Reddy was governor from 2003 to 2008. He is credited with helping to stabilize the Indian economy during the 2008 financial crisis.
- KJ Udeshi was the first woman Deputy Governor of the Reserve bank of India. Her tenure started from June 10, 2003, and lasted for over 2 years, till October 12, 2005
- Both, the RBI Governor and Deputy Governor, are appointed as per the Section 8 of Reserve Bank of India Act 1934.
For Download: RBI GOVERNORS
Please visit for more material: www.currentaffairsadda.com
For Indian Economy Books: CLICK HERE
