RBI releases statement following Deputy Governor Viral Acharya's resignation reports

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a statement on Monday clarifying the reports on the resignation of its Deputy Governor Viral Acharya. The statement also mentioned that consequential action arising is also being taken into consideration by the authorities.

Acharya resigned from his position six months before his tenure as the Deputy Governor is scheduled to end. The official statement of the RBI read:

"Reports have appeared in the certain sections of media that Dr Viral Acharya, the Deputy Governor of RBI has resigned from his post, and this is due to the personal unavoidable circumstances he stated."

READ | RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya Resigns Six Months Before Term Ends: Report

As per reports, Dr Acharya had put down his paper a week before he actually announced his resignation. He cited that his decision was because of some unavoidable personal circumstances that had arised. Hence he decided to quit even as his tenure as the Deputy Governor remains. The statement released by RBI also mentions that Dr Acharya while tendering his resignation had also said that he would not continue as the Deputy Governor of RBI after July 23 2019. Dr Acharya's resignation adds up to yet another high profile resignation in the past six months at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

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In December, Governor Urjit Patel resigned nearly nine months before the end of his schedule term over differences with the government. Acharya had joined the central bank on January 23 last year after Patel took over as the Governor in September 2016. The RBI is now left with three deputy governors N S Vishwanathan, B P Kanungo and M K Jain.

A New York University economics professor, Acharya once called himself the 'poor man's Raghuram Rajan'. He was appointed on January 23, 2017, and was RBI's youngest deputy governor post economic liberalisation. He took over at a time when the central bank was facing criticism for repeated changes in the rules related to deposit and withdrawal of money, post-demonetisation. Acharya will be returning to New York University Stern School of Business (NYU Stern) in August as CV Starr Professor of Economics.

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In the 1991 IIT entrance exam, Viral Acharya was ranked 5th nationally. Acharya is an IIT graduate and holds a BTech degree in Computer Science. He had received the President of India Gold Medal for attaining the highest grade point average in his batch. Viral Acharya also worked at the London Business School (LBS) from 2001 to 2008.