List of RBI Governors from 1935 to 2020 | RRB NTPC

List of RBI Governors from 1935 to 2020

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. Government Of India appoints the head of RBI who is referred to as governor. So far RBI has had 25 governors. Osborne Smith was the first governor of RBI in 1935 and Shaktikanta Das is the current governor of RBI. One of the major responsibilities that RBI holds is to form the monetary policy.

RBI consists of the following members:

• ➤ One- Governor

• ➤ Four- Deputy Governor

• ➤ Fourteen- Directors

• ➤ Two- Government Officers

RBI Governors: Powers

The RBI Governors 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

RBI Governors List: Governor Eligibility

Initially, RBI Governors were a part of Indian Civil services like C D Deshmukh, Bengal Rama Rao etc. but any individual who holds a Graduate degree/ Post Graduate/ Chartered Accountant can become a Governor of RBI provided that he had worked in any of the following institutions:

• ➤ IMF/ World Bank.

• ➤ Chairman or General Manager of a Bank.

• ➤ Reputed Financial or Banking organization.

• ➤ Ministry of Finance (GOI)

Other than the above any citizen who is 35 years or above than that is eligible. He must not be a member of the Parliament/State Legislature also he must not hold any other office for profit.

RBI Governors List: Appointment

The Governor of RBI is not appointed by the PMO (Prime Minister Office) on the recommendation of Union Finance Minister.

RBI Governors List: Tenure

The tenure of a RBI Governors as specified in the constitution is three years however it can be extended for two more years. The Governor can be terminated in two cases and they are as follows:

• ➤ If dismissed by the President.

• ➤ Resignation is submitted by the Governor to the President.

RBI Governors List: Responsibilities of RBI Governors

Here are some duties which are generally performed by the RBI Governors.

• ➤ The RBI governors are responsible for maintaining the monetary stability in an economy. Thus, plays an important role in formulating the policies of Reserve Bank of India.

• ➤ The responsibility for issuing licenses to open new foreign and private banks is also headed by the governor of RBI.

• ➤ The power to control the interest rates on advances and deposits of the country is vested upon the governors. However, the scope of this power is limited to prescribing minimum lending rates and interest rates on savings accounts.

• ➤ The financial system of the nation is regulated and administered by the Governor and he only sets the parameters within which the whole financial system functions.

• ➤ The Governor of RBI manages the external trade and payment also promotes orderly development and maintenance of foreign exchange market in India which comes under the foreign exchange management act, 1999.

• ➤ Monitoring of adequate quantities of currency notes and coins supply in the country and the issuance and destruction of currency not fit for circulation in public.

• ➤ RBI Governor also keeps a check on rules and regulations in order to make them more customer-friendly.

• ➤ Through Urban Bank Departments RBI governor leads and supervise primary co-operative banks.

• ➤ Furthermore, RBI Governor also has a part to play in facilitating and monitoring the flow of credit to small scale industries, rural, and agricultural sectors. The responsibility for regulating state co-operative banks, regional rural banks, and various local area banks.

The RBI Governors perform many more functions as the central bank of India.

RBI Governors List: Full Table

The list of RBI Governors from 1935 to 2020 is as mentioned below:

RBI Governors Names	Time Period 1935-2020
Sir Osborne Smith	April 1, 1935 – June 30, 1937
Sir James Braid Taylor	July 1, 1937 – February 17, 1943
Sir C.D. Deshmukh	August 11, 1943 – June 30, 1949
Sir Bengal Rama Rau	July 1, 1949 – January 14, 1957
K.G. Ambegaonkar	January 14, 1957 – February 28, 1957
H.V.R Lyengar	March 1, 1957 – February 28, 1962
P.C Bhattacharya	March 1, 1962 – June 30, 1967
L.K. Jha	July 1, 1967 – May 3, 1970
B.N. Adarkar	May 4, 1970 – June 15, 1970
S. Jagannathan	June 16, 1970 – May 19, 1975
N.C. Sen Gupta	May 19, 1975 – August 19, 1975
K.R. Puri	August 20, 1975 – May 2, 1977
M. Narasimham	May 3, 1977 – November 30, 1977
I.G. Patel	December 1, 1977 – September 15, 1982
Manmohan Singh	September 16, 1982 – January 14, 1985
Amitav Gosh	January 15, 1985 – September 4, 1985
R.N. Malhotra	February 4, 1985 – December 22, 1990
S. Vpnldraramanan	December 22, 1990 – December 21, 1992
C. Rangarajan	December 22, 1992 – November 21, 1997
Bimal Jalan	November 22, 1997 – September 6, 2003
Y.V. Reddy	September 6, 2003 – September 5, 2008
D. Subbarao	September 5, 2008 – September 4, 2013
Raghuram G. Raj an	September 4, 2013 – September 4, 2016
Urjit Ravindra Patel	September 4, 2016 – December 10,2018
Shaktikanta Das	December 12, 2018 – to date

Aspirants of Government exams or any other competitive exams must be well aware of the list of RBI Governors and the time duration they have served the organization. This topic holds relevance for the general awareness section of all types of competitive exams and for the Polity section in the exams.