RBI governor Shaktikanta Das tests positive for Covid – Times of India

MUMBAI: RBI governor Shaktikanta Das has tested positive for Covid-19. He has been regularly attending the RBI central office building in Mumbai through the pandemic. Das disclosed his testing positive in a tweet where he said that he was asymptomatic and was feeling very much all right and would continue to work from isolation. “Work in the RBI will go on normally. I am in touch with all the deputy governors and other officers through video-conferencing and telephone,” he said in his statement. The infection was detected during a routine diagnostic.
According to an RBI spokesperson, the central office will continue to remain operational. The RBI has four deputy governors — B P Kanungo, M K Jain, Michael Patra and M Rajeshwar Rao. The deputy governors have all tested negative. The central office will continue to remain operational as usual as it undergoes frequent sanitisation and there are safeguards, including thermal screening and regular disinfection.
On October 22, Das had appeared in an online panel discussion at the launch of N K Singh’s book. He had also chaired the 585th board meeting of the RBI on October 23 through videoconference. In the meeting, the board reviewed the current economic situation, continued global and domestic challenges and aspects of RBI’s operations.
In the early days of the pandemic, the central bank had set up a war room where close to 120 officers were staying at the workplace. Most of RBI’s staff work from home with around a fourth attending office on rotation to avoid any infection risk. Earlier this month, the RBI had extended the working hours for the money, bond and forex markets.