Subir Vithal Gokarn was one of the four Deputy Governors of the Reserve Bank of India along with Anand Sinha, K.C. Chakrabarty and H.R.Khan. He was replaced by Urjit Patel in January 2013. Appointed by the Government Of India on 19 November 2009 for a three-year term beginning 24 November 2009, he succeeded Rakesh Mohan after the latter took up an assignment for six months and joined the Stanford Center for International Development at Stanford University, US. Prominent economists like Jahangir Aziz and Dr. Arvind Virmani were also considered for the post that was eventually handed to Dr. Gokarn after a decision by a search panel headed by Duvvuri Subbarao and comprising Janki Ballabh and Vepa Kamesam. Prior to his appointment as the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Dr. Gokarn was the Chief Economist of global rating agencyStandard and Poor's Asia-Pacific since August 2007. He was the head of CRISIL's Research and Information business and also a nominee Board Member of the State Bank Of India. Appointed at the age of 49, Dr. Gokarn was one of the youngest Deputy Governors of RBI in its 76-year history and was to supervise the Monetary Policy Department,Department of Statistics and Information Management, Department of Economic Analysis and Policy,Credit Guarantee Corporation, Department of Communication and Deposit Insurance and also represent the Reserve Bank at the G-20 Deputies’ forum. Subir has recently joined as Director-Research at Brookings India - an independent think-tank. He was also to serve as a Brookings Senior Fellow. Subir died on July 30, 2019.
Education
Dr. Gokarn graduated from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, with a B.A. in Economics and from the Delhi School of Economics with an M.A. in Economics. After a two-year stint with the Bureau of Industrial Costs and Prices, he went on to pursue a Ph.D. in Economics at Case Western Reserve University, USA, which he received in 1989. He was a Fulbright Scholar and spent an academic year at the Economic Growth centre at Yale University,USA on a Fulbright Research Fellowship which he was awarded in 1997.
Past Appointments
Dr.Gokarn has previously held the position of Associate Professor at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research in Mumbai and then the Chief Economist and Industrial Finance Corporation of India Chair at the National Council of Applied Economic Research in New Delhi prior to his move to CRISIL. He was the Chief Economist, Centre for Economic Research and Executive Director of CRISIL Ltd. till August 2007 and then served as the Chief Economist at Standard and Poor's Asia Pacific till his appointment in the RBI in 2009 and has been a Member on the Boards of organisations like Global Data Services of India Ltd, EconoMatters Ltd and CRISIL MarketWire Ltd. He has also served as the former Chairperson of the Economic Affairs Committee of the ASSOCHAM.
