Gold medalist in central bank Olympics-All you need to know about RBI governor Shaktikanta Das

RBI governor Shaktikanta Das was awarded an A+ grade, the highest of the lot, for the second time in a row by the Global Finance Magazine's Central Banker Report Card 2024. While the full list will be available in October, Das was ranked the highest, along with Denmark's Christian Kettel Thomsen and Switzerland's Thomas Jordan. Fed chairman Jerome Powell scored an A- on the list. Before Das, former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan had also made to this list in 2015, securing A grade.

Taking to X, PM Narendra Modi and Anand Mahindra, who heads Mahindra and Mahindra, congratulated Das, with the billionaire calling him "a gold medalist in central bank Olympics".



Brazil's Roberto Campos Neto, Chile's Rosanna Costa, Sri Lanka's Nandalal Weerasinghe and Vietnam's Nguyen Thi Hong received a A grade, while EU's Christine Lagarde, Cambodia's Chea Serey and Sweden's Erik Thedéen were amongst those receiving the A-grade. Since 1994, Global Finance has been grading the central bank governors of nearly 100 countries. They are rated at a scale of A+ (excellent) to F (failure) depending on their success across specific parameters such as inflation control, economic growth goals, currency stability and interest rate management.

Who is Shaktikanta Das?

With a seasoned bureaucratic legacy of 35 years, Das is an IAS officer from the 1980 Tamil Nadu cadre. He graduated from St. Stephens College, Delhi with a degree in history, and was appointed as the 25th governor of the apex bank five years ago, on December 12th, 2018. Prior to assuming this position, Das had also served as secretary in the Department of Revenue and also, Economic Affairs under the Ministry of Finance. He also served as the DM (district magistrate) for Dindigul and Kanchipuram.

Having worked with 4 different finance ministers (Pranab Mukherjee, Arun Jaitley, P Chidambaram and Nirmala Sitharaman), Das had previously also been a member, 15th Finance Commission, along with being a G20 Sherpa in 2017.

Das had been instrumental in preparation of India's last 8 union budgets, along with serving as India's alternate governor at various fora, like World Bank, Asian Development Bank, New Development Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and more.

Das has several economic laurels to his name. From drafting the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code to executing tax devolution under GST for states and demonetisation, , Shaktikanta Das has played a crucial role in shaping India's overall economic health