The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das has been awarded with the prestigious "Governor of the Year 2023" by central banking, a leading publication on global central banking issues. The award recognizes his outstanding leadership and vision in steering the Indian economy and financial system through multiple challenges and shocks in the past year.
Shaktikanta Das, who took charge as the 25th governor of RBI on December 12, 2018, has been widely praised for his proactive and pragmatic approach to monetary policy, financial stability, banking regulation and supervision, payment systems and currency management. He has also played a key role in enhancing India's global engagement and cooperation as India's Sherpa to the G20 and as an alternate governor in various multilateral institutions.
Some of his notable achievements include:
- Maintaining price stability and supporting growth amid high inflationary pressures due to supply disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine, rising commodity prices and global monetary policy normalization.
- Ensuring adequate liquidity and credit flow to all sectors of the economy through various conventional and unconventional measures such as targeted long-term repo operations (TLTROs), special liquidity facilities (SLFs), on-tap TLTROs for specific sectors, priority sector lending (PSL) norms relaxation etc.
- Strengthening financial resilience and governance of banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) by implementing Basel III capital norms, asset quality review (AQR), prompt corrective action (PCA) framework, resolution framework for stressed assets etc.
- Promoting digitalization and innovation in payment systems by introducing new payment modes such as Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS), National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) etc., facilitating interoperability among prepaid payment instruments (PPIs), enabling offline payments using QR codes etc.
- Managing currency circulation efficiently during periods of high demand such as festive seasons, elections etc., ensuring smooth demonetization of old banknotes in 2019, launching new series of banknotes with enhanced security features etc.
- Enhancing consumer protection and financial literacy by issuing guidelines on fair practices code for lenders, setting up ombudsman schemes for various segments of financial services providers, launching national strategy for financial education etc.
Shaktikanta Das is a retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from Tamil Nadu cadre who joined RBI after serving as a member of the Fifteenth Finance Commission. He has also held various important positions in both central and state governments such as Economic Affairs Secretary, Revenue Secretary, Fertilizers Secretary etc.