Y.V Reddy

Dr.Y.Venugopal Reddy

Dr. Yaga Venugopal Reddy, better known as Y. V. Reddy, (born 17 August 1941) is an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1964 batch who served as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) (India's central bank) from 6 September 2003 until 5 September 2008.

In 2010, he was awarded India's second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan.   

Dr. Yaga Venugopal Reddy
21st Governor of Reserve Bank of India
In office 6 September 2003 – 5 September 2008
Preceded by	Bimal Jalan
Succeeded by	Duvvuri Subbarao
Personal details
Born	17 August 1941 (age 71) India
Nationality	Indian
Occupation	Bureaucrat

Education and honour:

Reddy received his M.A. in economics from Madras University, India. He holds a PhD from Osmania University, Hyderabad. He also holds a Diploma in Economic Planning from the Institute of Social Studies, Netherlands.Reddy was awarded Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) by Sri Venkateswara University, India; and Doctor of Civil Law (Honoris Causa) by the University of Mauritius.

On 17 July 2008 Reddy was made an Honorary Fellow of the London School of Economics.     

Position Held:                                                                                                    

Venugopal Reddy was appointed the twenty-first Governor of the Reserve Bank of India on 6 September 2003 and served in that position for five years.

In 1996, Reddy had been appointed deputy governor of RBI. He has also worked with the International Monetary Fund as Executive Director in 2002. Prior to joining the IAS, he worked as alecturer from 1961.

Reddy was Chairman of the Bank for International Settlements, Asian Consultative Council (ACC) for a term of two years from March 2007. He was the Chairperson of SAARCFINANCE, a Group of Governors of the central banks of SAARC member countries. He has held the positions of Secretary (Banking) in Ministry of Finance and Principal Secretary in Government of Andhra Pradesh and has worked with the governments of China, Bahrain, Ethiopia and Tanzania. He has been a Visiting Fellow, London School of Economics, a full-time UGC Visiting Professor in Department of Business Management, Osmania University; full-time Visiting Faculty, Administrative Staff College of India and continues to be the Honorary Senior Fellow at Centre for Economic and Social Studies at Hyderabad.

He is the Chairman of the 14th Finance Commission of India.

Contributions:

Reddy has worked on piloting a calibrated approach to financial sector reforms. A 19 December 2008 article in the New York Times has credited the tough lending standards he imposed on the Indian banks as RBI Governor for saving the entire Indian banking system from the sub-prime and liquidity crisis of 2008. At the Reserve Bank, he was Member-Secretary of two high level committees: one on Balance of payments and the other on Public Sector disinvestments. Dr. C. Rangarajan, former Governor, Reserve Bank of India headed both the committees. Reddy was also a member of the Reserve Bank of India's Policy Group on External Debt Statistics. Reddy is credited to have played a crucial role in framing macro-economic policies that helped quarantine the country from the domino effect of the financial crisis encountered by the South-East Asian countries during the later part of the 1990s. He, along with Dr. C. Rangarajan, is also credited with the formulation of the course to be steered by the country to come out of the then Balance of Payments crisis.

As Governor, he saw his job as making sure Indian banks did not get too caught up in the bubble mentality. He banned the use of bank loans for the purchase of raw land, and sharply curtailed securitisations and derivatives, and essentially prohibited off-balance sheet financing. He increased risk weightings on commercial buildings and shopping mall construction and increased bank reserve requirements.Less well-discussed is his work on rural banking, particularly on reviving co-operative banks and his focus on the common person. His term was marked by an emphasis on financial inclusion with the aid of information technology. He recently authored a book titled "India And The Global Financial Crisis : Managing Money and Finance" published by Orient Blackswan. He is widely consulted on many financial issues by institutions both in India as well as the world over.