Media-savvy RBI Guv handles questions with wit

Newly appointed RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Thursday handled a tricky question on Deputy Governor Viral Acharya with his characteristic wit and one line answer leaving media stunned at his first press conference minutes after joining the Mint Street office.

The press was keen on whether Acharya wished to serve under him or he too was planning to quit.

“I just had tea with him some time ago. So, as far as I know, he is still there,” Das said to a pointed question on whether Acharya was still there.

Das was a media-savvy bureaucrat during his stint at the Ministry of Finance and at the time of demonetisation, he held press conferences on a daily basis.

Soon after RBI Governor Urjit Patel announced his decision to quit, social media was agog with speculation that Acharya too had resigned.

However, the RBI on Monday refuted such reports that the deputy governor has resigned from his post.

It was Acharya, who ignited the recent central autonomy debate after he made a speech at an event warning the governments of the day against playing independence of the central bank.

The governments, which tried to curtail the autonomy of the central bank, would invite the “wrath of the markets”, he had said.

According to the industry insiders, it was Acharya's decision not to quit that helped markets hold on the slide after Patel's exit. However, many sources in the know, suggest that it's just a matter of time that he quits RBI.

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