Shaktikanta Das appointed new RBI governor

New Delhi, Dec 11: Former finance secretary and current member of the finance commission Shaktikanta Das has been appointed as the new Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor.

"The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Shaktikanta Das, former Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a period of three years," an official order said.

Das a retired 1980 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Tamil Nadu cadre. He was member of the Fifteenth Finance Commission of India, and India's Sherpa to G20.

During his career as an IAS officer, he served in various capacities for Indian and Tamil Nadu governments, including as Economic Affairs Secretary of India, Revenue Secretary of India, Fertilizers Secretary of India.

Das came under fire for his pro-demonetisation stance and he was the most visible and vocal bureaucrat at the time Modi withdrew the high-value bank notes in 2016.

His biggest challenge would be to handle the pressure from the government on issues such as the restructuring of loans, infusing liquidity and sticking to its strict default norms for resolution of bad debts in banks' books, where the Centre has favoured a more lenient approach.

Das appointment comes a day after Urjit Patel resigned from his post of RBI governor on account of personal reasons, with immediate effect.

"On account of personal reasons, I have decided to step down from my current position effective immediately," Patel said in a statement.