“Immensely Grateful To…”: Outgoing RBI Chief Shaktikanta Das’ Message

Mumbai:

Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das on Tuesday said the fiscal-monetary coordination was at its best during the last six years even as he thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving the opportunity to head the monetary authority of the country.

Mr Das, in a series of posts on X, on his last day of his six-year term as RBI Governor, also thanked the Finance Minister, various stakeholders and his colleagues at the central bank.

“Immensely grateful to the Hon’ble PM @narendramodi for giving me this opportunity to serve the country as Governor RBI and for his guidance and encouragement. Benefited a lot from his ideas and thoughts,” he said in a post on X from his personal handle.

Expressing gratitude to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for her constant support and backing, he said, fiscal-monetary coordination was at its best and helped to deal with multiple challenges during the last six years.

He also thanked all the stakeholders in the financial sector and in the economy; experts and economists; industry bodies and associations; organisations in the agriculture, cooperative and service sectors for their inputs and policy suggestions.

“A BIG thank you to the entire Team RBI. Together, we successfully navigated an exceptionally difficult period of unprecedented global shocks. May the RBI grow even taller as an institution of trust and credibility. My best wishes to each one of you,” he said in another post.

Mr Das was appointed the 25th RBI Governor in December 2018, after the sudden resignation of Urjit Patel amid a tussle between RBI and the government over the issue of surplus transfer and autonomy of the regulator.

Soon after taking over, he not only settled the storm amicably related to surplus transfer but assuaged the concerns of the markets. Not once since he took over did the issue of the RBI autonomy hit the headlines.

During his stint, RBI provided record dividends to the government. Earlier this year, the central bank handed over the highest-ever dividend of Rs 2.11 lakh crore.

His governance has always been in sync with what the Narendra Modi government wanted in an RBI chief, after the successive stints of Raghuram Rajan and Urjit Patel, which were marred by constant conflicts between the RBI and the Finance Ministry.

He also deftly steered India’s monetary policy response during the challenging period of Covid-19 pandemic.

In his previous avatar, Das as Economic Affairs Secretary and Revenue Secretary was the key man behind the planning and execution of the demonetisation drive and rollout of the landmark Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Mr Das, a 1980 batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre, retired as Secretary of Department of Economic Affairs in May 2018. Post-retirement, he was appointed as a Member of the 15th Finance Commission and G20 Sherpa of India.

During his long tenure in the Ministry of Finance, he was directly associated with the preparation of as many as eight Union Budgets. 

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