S. Venkitaramanan

Sri Venkitaramanan (28 January 1931 – 18 November 2023) was an Indian civil servant and economist who served as the 18th governor of the Reserve Bank of India between 1990 and 1992, where he oversaw India's actions to tide over the balance of payments crisis. His actions were noted to have helped the country out of the crisis when its foreign-exchange reserves had almost depleted and helped usher in the country's economic liberalisation programme in the early 1990s.

He earlier served as the finance secretary in India's Ministry of Finance, from 1985 to 1989.

Early life Venkitaramanan was born on 28 January 1931 in the town of Nagercoil in Padmanathapuram division of the princely-state of Travancore, into a Tamil Iyer family.

Venkitaramanan completed his master's degree in physics from University College Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, and also obtained a master's degree in Industrial Administration from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, US.

Career Venkitaramanan was a member of the Indian Administrative Service. He was posted with the Government of India and with the state of Tamilnadu at various times. He also served the Government of Karnataka as adviser. In the late 1960s, he served as the private secretary to Indian politician and food minister, Chidambaram Subramaniam, while ushering in India's green revolution.

Venkitaramanan served as Finance Secretary in the Ministry of Finance with the Government of India for four years from 1985 to 1989, under the Rajiv Gandhi government. At the time of his appointment as RBI Governor, India was in the midst of a balance of payments crisis, with fast-depleting foreign exchange reserves. His actions as the Governor were noted to have contributed to India's tiding over the crisis.

Venkitaramanan died on 18 November 2023, at the age of 92.

Published works

In popular culture

Actor Anant Mahadevan portrayed Venkitaramanan in Scam 1992, a Sony Liv's original web series based on the 1992 Indian stock market scam of Harshad Mehta.

In the film Governor, the RBI Governor was portrayed by Manoj Bajpayee as A. Ramanan, inspired by S. Venkitaramanan, the 18th Governor of the RBI.