Rabi Sankar Tavarna

Mr. T. Rabi Sankar, a career central banker joined the Bank in 1990 and has worked in various capacities until he assumed the Office of Deputy Governor in May 2021. His current areas of responsibility include public debt management, forex reserves management, payment systems, IT infrastructure, currency management and foreign exchange management. Mr. Sankar is also the Chairman of the Reserve Bank’s currency notes printing Press.
Mr. Sankar has extensive experience in the area of public debt management. In the early 2000s, he played a key role in creating the regulatory framework for government securities market in India. He was also instrumental in setting up Reserve Bank of India’s screen based anonymous Negotiated Dealing System (NDS) in Government Securities with guaranteed settlement through a central counterparty. More recently, under his guidance, RBI has rolled out a web-based system called “Retail Direct” enabling Indians to directly buy and sell Indian government bonds. Earlier, Mr. Sankar worked in the Indian Government and helped in setting up government’s public debt management unit inside the Ministry of Finance. He has also advised the Government of Bangladesh regarding their government securities market and served as an IMF Consultant (2005-11) on developing Government bond markets and debt management.
As Deputy Governor In-Charge of Payment Systems, he has oversight of the well-known Unified Payment Interface (UPI) and other digital payment systems, all of which have contributed to widespread adoption of digital payments and positioned India as a leading country in this area. The RBI recently set up its own Innovation Hub in Bangalore which has devised a digital solution for speeding up disbursal of rural credit and other innovative initiatives for strengthening financial inclusion. More recently, the RBI has rolled out a pilot for testing the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
He has represented RBI on international forums like Bank for International Settlements and various internal and external expert committees and working groups.
Mr. Sankar has a Master of Philosophy in Economics from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.