First Indian Deputy Governor Of Reserve Bank Of India

K J Udeshi has been appointed the deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).She is the first woman deputy governor of the RBI. The appointment is till 12 October 2005 when she completes 62 years of age.

Joining RBI in 1965, Ms Udeshi rose from the ranks and was appointed as executive director in 2001. She has had a long stint in exchange control and the central bank’s internal administration and human resources departments. 

Ms Udeshi has been an RBI nominee on the board of State Bank of India (SBI), has been a member of the governing board of the National Institute of Bank Management, the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection, a member on the Governing Council of Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology and a member on the Apex Committee on Market Awareness, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). 

She has also been a co-chairperson on sub-group on banking and finance, the Indo-Russian inter-governmental commission for trade, economic, scientific, technological and cultural cooperation.Born in 1943, Ms Udeshi is a post-graduate in Economics. She is a diploma holder in bank management from the National Institute of Bank Management and is a Certificated Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers (CAIIB). 

Ms Udeshi’s (in her capacity as executive director-RBI) keynote address at the Assembly of the Forex Dealers’ Association of India at Bangalore on September 28, 2002, was a benchmark one that chronicled the country’s progress on forex management over a decade. With debates over the level of reserves, its cost and the issue of capital account convertibility raging, it would be worthwhile recollecting her views: “... it also leads me to the current spate of debates and opinions in respect of the level and cost of reserves. Should countries hold larger reserves or less reserves? Countries need to set their reserves holding on the basis of capital as well as current account variables. Apart from the computable charge on the reserves arising out of commitments relating to capital account transactions, both long and short term, as well as trade requirement, the impact of external and internal shocks have to be kept in view in formulating policy on reserves”.