List of RBI Governors
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was established in 1935 and nationalised on January 1, 1949. The general administration and direction of RBI is managed by a Central Board of Directors consisting of 20 members which includes 1 Governor, 4 Deputy Governors, 1 Government official appointed by the Union Government of India.
This will be a handy reference for all competitive Exams. Here is the list of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governors along with their joining and leaving dates with details
| S.No. | Name | Tenure From | Tenure Up to | Work Tenure Detail |
| 1 | Sir Osborne A. Smith | 1st April 1935 | 30th June 1937 | Sir Osborne Smith was the first Governor of the Reserve Bank. A professional banker, his outlook on policy issues like the exchange rates and interest rates was at variance with that of the Government Sir Osborne, however, did not sign any bank notes during his tenure. |
| 2 | Sir James Braid Taylor | 1st July 1937 | 17th February 1943 | His stewardship saw the Bank through the war years and the financial experiments it engendered and catalysed, including the decisive break away from a silver currency to fiat money. |
| 3 | Sir Chinataman D. Deshmukh | 11th August 1943 | 30th June 1949 | Saw the transition to Independence and the partition of the country and the division of the assets and liabilities of the Reserve Bank between India and Pakistan. |
| 4 | Sir Benegal Rama Rau | 1st July 1949 | 14th January 1957 | His tenure witnessed the commencement of the Planning Era as well innovative initiatives in the spheres of co-operative credit and industrial finance. The recommendations of the All India Rural Credit Survey Committee appointed during his tenure led to the transformation of the Imperial Bank of India to State Bank of India. |
| 5 | K.G. Ambegaonkar | 14th January 1957 | 28th February 1957 | He forged closer connections between agricultural enterprise and the Reserve Bank’s operations. K G Ambegaonkar did not sign any bank notes. |
| 6 | H.V.R. Iyenger | 1st March 1957 | 28th February 1962 | His tenure witnessed India’s shift to decimal coinage from the earlier system. |
| 7 | P.C. Bhattacharya | 1st March 1962 | 30th June 1967 | His tenure saw the establishment of the Industrial Development Bank of India (1964), and the establishment of the Agricultural Refinance Corporation (1963) and the Unit Trust of India (1964). The devaluation of the Rupee in 1966, |
| 8 | L.K. Jha | 1st July 1967 | 3rd May 1970 | mongst other developments, gold controls were brought on a statutory basis; |
| 9 | B.N. Adarkar | 4th May 1970 | 15th June 1970 | he played an active role in the establishment of the National Institute of Bank Management. |
| 10 | S. Jagannathan | 16th June 1970 | 19th August 1975 | the setting up of State Level Bankers’ Committees and the shift to floating rates regime. |
| 11 | N. C. Sen Gupta | 19th May 1975 | 19th August 1975 | N C Sen Gupta was appointed Governor for three months till K R Puri could assume office. |
| 12 | K.R. Puri | 20th August 1975 | 2nd May 1977 | During his tenure, Regional Rural Banks were set up; |
| 13 | M. Narasimham | 2nd May 1977 | 30th November 1977 | He had a short tenure of seven months. |
| 14 | Dr. I.G. Patel | 1st December 1977 | 15th September 1982 | His tenure witnessed the demonetisation of high denomination notes as well as the “gold auctions” conducted by the Bank on behalf of Government of India. During his tenure six private sector banks were nationalised, targets for priority sector lending introduced, and the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporations were merged, and a Departmental reorganisation was undertaken in the Bank |
| 15 | Dr. Manmohan Singh | 16th September 1982 | 14th January 1985 | During his tenure comprehensive legal reforms were carried out related to the banking sector and a new chapter introduced in the Reserve Bank of India Act and the Urban Banks Department was set up. |
| 16 | A. Ghosh | 15th January 1985 | 4th February 1985 | |
| 17 | R.N. Malhotra | 4th February 1985 | 22nd December 1990 | During his tenure efforts were made to develop the money markets and new instruments were introduced. The Discount and Finance House of India, the National Housing Bank were set up and the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research inaugurated. |
| 18 | S.Venkitaramanan | 22nd December 1990 | 21st December 1992 | The country faced difficulties related to the external sector during his tenure. His adroit management saw the country tide over the balance of payments crisis. Rupee underwent a devaluation and the launch of the programme of economic reforms |
| 19 | Dr. C. Rangarajan | 22nd Decmeber 1992 | 22nd November 1997 | His tenure as Governor saw unprecedented central bank activism to put in place a comprehensive set of measures to strengthen and improve the competitive efficiency of the financial sector |
| 20 | Dr. BimalJalan | 22nd November 1997 | 5th September 2003 | During his tenure, India weathered the Asian Crisis and has seen the consolidation of the gains of liberalisation and economic reforms |
| 21 | Dr. Y.V. Reddy | 6th September 2003 | 5th September 2008 | has made significant policy contributions in the areas of financial sector reforms; trade finance; monitoring of balance of payments and exchange rate; external commercial borrowings; centre-state financial relations; regional planning; and public enterprise reform and has been closely associated with institution building. |
| 22 | Dr. D. Subbaroa | 5th September 2008 | 4th September 2013 | |
| 23 | Dr. Raghuram G. Rajan | 4th September 2013 | 4th September 2016 | he was awarded the Financial Times-Goldman Sachs prize for best business book in 2010.The other awards he has received include the global Indian of the year award from NASSCOM in 2011, the Infosys prize for the Economic Sciences in 2012, and the Center for Financial Studies-Deutsche Bank Prize for financial economics in 2013. |
| 24 | Dr. Urjit R. Patel | 4th September 2016 | 11 December 2018 | Dr. Patel has several publications in the areas of Indian macroeconomics, monetary policy, public finance, the Indian financial sector, international trade, and regulatory economics. |
| 25 | Shaktikanta Das | 12 December 2018 | Incumbent | Shaktikanta Das (born 26 February 1957) is a retired 1980 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Tamil Nadu cadre. Currently serving as the 25th governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), he was earlier a member of the Fifteenth Finance Commission and India’s Sherpa to the G20. |
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