Outgoing RBI governor Shaktikanta Das spoke about the key takeaways from his tenure and what lies ahead at a press conference held today. Here's a lowdown of the key challenges that lie ahead for the new governor, from the lens of Das.

Das highlights the challenges that the RBI is grappling with, starting with the restoration of the balance between the country’s heightened inflation and growth rates.

“I think restoring the inflation growth balance is the most important task ahead of the Reserve Bank and I am sure the team RBI under the leadership of the new governor will take it forward,” Das says.

Das says with the changing world order, the new team must remain “alert and agile,” as cybersecurity will become even more pertinent with time.

“Our focus in the last 6 years has been to capitalise as much as possible on harnessing the benefits of new technology. We set up the RBI innovation hub in Bengaluru. We have a continuing regulatory sandbox where many innovative ideas and thoughts have come, and we have always tried to take them forward. We have given our approval to many of the innovative ideas and thoughts. CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) is again another area where RBI, among the (other) central banks, is a pioneer,” Das says on his last day as the central bank chief.

Thus, Das hopes that the new team would take these projects forward including the CBDC and unified lending interface (ULI) initiative to foster financial inclusion in the country.

“As I see it, CBDC has a huge potential in the coming years in the future. In fact, it is the future of currency. Similarly, the Unified lending interface, ULI, is a true game changer and I'm sure its benefits will get harnessed fully soon and there will be a national-level nationwide roll,” Das says.

 “Sanjay Malhotra (is) a person with wide experience and I am sure he will do his best and from my side all my best to my successor for success as the 26th governor of the Reserve Bank,” he adds.

When asked what the mantra for the new governor should be, Das said, “I cannot give any mantra to anyone. I would like to state emphatically that when a governor comes, he looks at the wider economy.”

He said that the new governor thus should focus on fulfilling his responsibility at the same time looking at the wider economy from the Reserve Bank’s perspective.

“It is your mandate given to you because you are occupying a particular position, plus the requirements of the wider economy. I think it's a synthesis of both and eventually it's a judgment call which every governor takes,” Das added.