Viral Acharya quits RBI: Implication for monetary policy, reforms, markets
The resignation of Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) deputy governor Viral Acharya six months ahead of the scheduled completion evoked mixed reactions from experts, especially at a time when the financial sector has seen a number of developments over the past one year. In the past three years, the central bank has seen the sudden exit of Raghuram Rajan and Urjit Patel as RBI Governors, and now Viral Acharya as its Deputy Governor, who was in charge of the Monetary Policy Department and the Department of Economic and Policy Research, among others. “ Dr. Acharya’s departure is not a complete surprise, as frictions between him and the government on issues related to central bank independence had come to the fore,” wrote Sonal Varma, managing director and chief India economist at Nomura in a co-authored report with Aurodeep Nandi. While the process of finding a successor should get underway soon, Sanjeev Sanyal, principal economic advisor in the Ministry of Finance, and Dr. Micha