The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was established in 1935 and nationalised on January 1, 1949. The general administration and direction of RBI is managed by a Central Board of Directors consisting of 20 members which includes 1 Governor, 4 Deputy Governors, 1 Government official appointed by the Union Government of India.

This will be a handy reference for all competitive Exams. Here is the list of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governors along with their joining and leaving dates with details

 

S.No.	Name	Tenure From	Tenure Up to	Work Tenure Detail
1	Sir Osborne A. Smith	1st April 1935	30th June 1937	Sir Osborne Smith was the first Governor of the Reserve Bank. A professional banker, his outlook on policy issues like the exchange rates and interest rates was at variance with that of the Government Sir Osborne, however, did not sign any bank notes during his tenure.
2	Sir James Braid Taylor	1st July 1937	17th February 1943	His stewardship saw the Bank through the war years and the financial experiments it engendered and catalysed, including the decisive break away from a silver currency to fiat money.
3	Sir Chinataman D. Deshmukh	11th August 1943	30th June 1949	Saw the transition to Independence and the partition of the country and the division of the assets and liabilities of the Reserve Bank between India and Pakistan.
4	Sir Benegal Rama Rau	1st July 1949	14th January 1957	His tenure witnessed the commencement of the Planning Era as well innovative initiatives in the spheres of co-operative credit and industrial finance. The recommendations of the All India Rural Credit Survey Committee appointed during his tenure led to the transformation of the Imperial Bank of India to State Bank of India.
5	K.G. Ambegaonkar	14th January 1957	28th February 1957	He forged closer connections between agricultural enterprise and the Reserve Bank’s operations. K G Ambegaonkar did not sign any bank notes.
6	H.V.R. Iyenger	1st March 1957	28th February 1962	His tenure witnessed India’s shift to decimal coinage from the earlier system.
7	P.C. Bhattacharya	1st March 1962	30th June 1967	His tenure saw the establishment of the Industrial Development Bank of India (1964), and the establishment of the Agricultural Refinance Corporation (1963) and the Unit Trust of India (1964). The devaluation of the Rupee in 1966,
8	L.K. Jha	1st July 1967	3rd May 1970	mongst other developments, gold controls were brought on a statutory basis;
9	B.N. Adarkar	4th May 1970	15th June 1970	he played an active role in the establishment of the National Institute of Bank Management.
10	S. Jagannathan	16th June 1970	19th August 1975	the setting up of State Level Bankers’ Committees and the shift to floating rates regime.
11	N. C. Sen Gupta	19th May 1975	19th August 1975	N C Sen Gupta was appointed Governor for three months till K R Puri could assume office.
12	K.R. Puri	20th August 1975	2nd May 1977	During his tenure, Regional Rural Banks were set up;
13	M. Narasimham	2nd May 1977	30th November 1977	He had a short tenure of seven months.
14	Dr. I.G. Patel	1st December 1977	15th September 1982	His tenure witnessed the demonetisation of high denomination notes as well as the “gold auctions” conducted by the Bank on behalf of Government of India. During his tenure six private sector banks were nationalised, targets for priority sector lending introduced, and the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporations were merged, and a Departmental reorganisation was undertaken in the Bank
15	Dr. Manmohan Singh	16th September 1982	14th January 1985	During his tenure comprehensive legal reforms were carried out related to the banking sector and a new chapter introduced in the Reserve Bank of India Act and the Urban Banks Department was set up.
16	A. Ghosh	15th January 1985	4th February 1985
17	R.N. Malhotra	4th February 1985	22nd December 1990	During his tenure efforts were made to develop the money markets and new instruments were introduced. The Discount and Finance House of India, the National Housing Bank were set up and the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research inaugurated.
18	S.Venkitaramanan	22nd December 1990	21st December 1992	The country faced difficulties related to the external sector during his tenure. His adroit management saw the country tide over the balance of payments crisis. Rupee underwent a devaluation and the launch of the programme of economic reforms
19	Dr. C. Rangarajan	22nd Decmeber 1992	22nd November 1997	His tenure as Governor saw unprecedented central bank activism to put in place a comprehensive set of measures to strengthen and improve the competitive efficiency of the financial sector
20	Dr. BimalJalan	22nd November 1997	5th September 2003	During his tenure, India weathered the Asian Crisis and has seen the consolidation of the gains of liberalisation and economic reforms
21	Dr. Y.V. Reddy	6th September 2003	5th September 2008	has made significant policy contributions in the areas of financial sector reforms; trade finance; monitoring of balance of payments and exchange rate; external commercial borrowings; centre-state financial relations; regional planning; and public enterprise reform and has been closely associated with institution building.
22	Dr. D. Subbaroa	5th September 2008	4th September 2013
23	Dr. Raghuram G. Rajan	4th September 2013	4th September 2016	he was awarded the Financial Times-Goldman Sachs prize for best business book in 2010.The other awards he has received include the global Indian of the year award from NASSCOM in 2011, the Infosys prize for the Economic Sciences in 2012, and the Center for Financial Studies-Deutsche Bank Prize for financial economics in 2013.
24	Dr. Urjit R. Patel	4th September 2016	11 December 2018	Dr. Patel has several publications in the areas of Indian macroeconomics, monetary policy, public finance, the Indian financial sector, international trade, and regulatory economics.
25	Shaktikanta Das	12 December 2018	Incumbent	Shaktikanta Das (born 26 February 1957) is a retired 1980 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Tamil Nadu cadre. Currently serving as the 25th governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), he was earlier a member of the Fifteenth Finance Commission and India’s Sherpa to the G20.