Mumbai: S. Venkitaramanan, who navigated the Reserve Bank of India through the crucial years of the 1990 balance of payment crisis, subsequent economic reforms, and the Harshad Mehta scam, passed away on Saturday in Chennai at the age of 92.
Appointed as the eighteenth Governor of the RBI by the Chandra Shekhar government in 1990 during a period of a balance of payment crisis, Venkitaramanan held this position for two transformative years from 1990 to 1992.Despite lacking formal qualifications as an economist, he was selected for his familiarity with the balance of payment situation, which had led to depleted forex reserves.
Before his governorship, Venkitaramanan served as the Finance Secretary in the Ministry of Finance from 1985 to 1989. His immediate challenge as the RBI Governor was to manage the crisis by engaging with other central banks and multilateral institutions to raise…
