Uma Shankar appointed RBI Executive Director

Uma Shankar, chief general manager (CGM) in charge of the Reserve Bank of India's financial inclusion and development department has taken over as executive director (ED) in the central bank last week, three people familar with the development said.

Shankar has been elevated after Meena Hemchandra the executive director in charge of the central bank's supervision department retired at the end of November.

Shankar's appointment has not yet been made public because another executive director Deepali Pant Joshi is set to retire later this month, one of the persons cited above said.

RBI website still lists Hemchandra as ED and Shankar as CGM.

"The portfolios are yet to be allocated officially because it is likely that there could be some shuffling after Pant Joshi retires this month," said one of the persons cited above.

Shankar is most likely to take charge of the supervision department of the central bank, a second person said.

An email sent to RBI was not immediately replied as central bank offices are shut on Sundays.

Pant's retirement will also open up another ED vacancy at the central bank.

RBI has 11 EDs currently and each of them supervises the 34 departments headed by CGMs at the central bank.

Two departments, namely department of economic and policy research and department of external investments and operations have no CGMs heading it according to the RBI website.

"EDs are selected by a committee involving the governor and deputy governors from among the CGMs. There will be 11 EDs ultimately," said this person quoted above.

It is likely that CGMs go through another round of interviews for a replacement for Pant Joshi later this month. Though this could not be confirmed.

Last week the RBI tweaked some portfolios between deputy governors, giving Viral Acharya the financial stability unit (FSU) and BP Kanungo the RBI subsidiary Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corp of India (DICGCI).

Both these were managed by deputy governor NS Vishwanathan who is also incharge of the crucial supervision function.