Mukesh Dhariwal
Reserve bank of India (RBI) is the Central Bank of India. It is responsible to govern the monetary policy of the country. RBI was established on 1st April 1935 under the RBI Act, 1934 and was formed with the recommendation of “Hilton – Young Commission”. It was initially established as a privately owned bank and got nationalized on 1st January 1949 after the Independence of India. RBI is headquartered in Mumbai but initially, it was located in Kolkata and shifted to Mumbai in 1937.
The Governor of 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 RBI Governors are appointed by the Government of India for a fixed period of time.The Indian notes(Except the 1 Rupee note) issued by the Reserve Bank of India is signed by the Governor of the RBI.
Here is the complete list of 25 RBI Governors from 1935-2020
| Sl. No. | Name | Time Period |
| 1 | Sir Osborne Smith | 1st April, 1935 – 30th June, 1937 |
| 2 | Sir James Braid Taylor | 1st July, 1937 –17th February, 1943 |
| 3 | Sir Chintaman Dwarakanath Deshmukh | 11th August, 1943 – 30th June, 1949 |
| 4 | Sir Bengal Rama Rau | 1st July, 1949 – 14 th January, 1957 |
| 5 | K.G. Ambegaonkar | 14th January, 1957 – 28th February, 1957 |
| 6 | H.V.R Lyengar | 1st March, 1957 – 28th February, 1962 |
| 7 | P.C Bhattacharya | 1st March, 1962 – 30th June, 1967 |
| 8 | Lakshmi Kant 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 | 3rd May, 1977 – 30th November, 1977 |
| 14 | I.G. Patel | 1st December, 1977 – 15th September, 1982 |
| 15 | Dr.Manmohan Singh | 16tth September, 1982 – 14th January, 1985 |
| 16 | Amitav Gosh | 15th January, 1985 – 4th February, 1985 |
| 17 | R.N. Malhotra | 4th February, 1985 – 22nd December, 1990 |
| 18 | S. Vpnldraramanan | 22nd December,1990 – 21st December,1992 |
| 19 | C. Rangarajan | 22ndDecember,1992 – 21st Novembe,1997 |
| 20 | Bimal Jalan | 22nd November, 1997 – 6th September, 2003 |
| 21 | Y.V. Reddy | 6th September, 2003 – 5th September, 2008 |
| 22 | D. Subbarao | 5th September, 2008 – 4th September, 2013 |
| 23 | Raghuram Govinda Rajan | 4th September, 2013 – 4th September, 2016 |
| 24 | Urjit Ravindra Patel | 4th September, 2016 –10th December, 2018 |
| 25 | Shaktikanta Das | 12th December, 2018 – Till Date |
Facts:
- Sir Osborne Smith was the first ever governor of RBI.
- Mr. C.D. Deshmukh was the first Indian Governor of RBI
- Amitabh Ghosh served RBI as Governor for the shortest time, only for 20 days starting from January 15, 1985, to February 4, 1985.
- Benegal Rama Rao had served as the RBI Governor for the longest time period.He worked for almost 7 years from 1st July 1949 to 14th January 1957.
- On 2004,Dr. Manmohan Singh became the first and only RBI Governor,to serve the country as the Indian Prime Minister
- In 2003, Ms KJ Udeshi became first woman Deputy Governor of the Reserve bank of India.
- RBI Governor is appointed by the Prime Minster’s Office (PMO). The Union Finance Minister’s recommendation is taken into consideration while appointing the Governor
- Both, the RBI Governor and Deputy Governor, are appointed as per the Section 8 of Reserve Bank of India Act 1934
- The motto of RBI is : “Cash is King, but Digital is Divine”
- The Slogan of RBI is : “Developing Banking“.
Do Follow: Reserve Bank of India – Quick Facts
