FORMER deputy governor of India's central bank KC Chakrabarty, 68, passed away on Friday (26) morning due to a heart attack.
He was deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from June 2009 to April 2014, resigning three months before his term concluded.
He is known for his contributions to the field of financial inclusion and literacy, in India and globally.
During his tenure in the RBI, he contributed to the fields of banking regulation and supervision, microfinance institutions, rights of bank customers, SMEs, and restructuring regional rural banks.
He started his career teaching at the Banaras Hindu University, but then he joined the Bank of Baroda (BoB). He was at the helm of UK operations of BoB during 2001-04. He was then chosen to head the Indian Bank and later Punjab National Bank before being appointed as the deputy governor of RBI.
Chakrabarty during his career was known for his sense of humour and witticism.
The only son among six children to parents who migrated to India from East Pakistan after independence, Chakrabarty was born in a Bengali Brahmin family in District Kandhmala in Orissa.
He was later sent to Varanasi for education and completed most of his education in Uttar Pradesh, completing his graduation and post-graduation from Banaras Hindu University where he stood first in MSc, Statistics.
He obtained his PhD from the same university. He is a second rank holder in his bachelor's degree in science, first rank holder gold medalist in MSc statistics and has a doctorate in statistics from the Banaras Hindu University.
Chakrabarty was stripped of all his key portfolios after an off-the-record comment made by an 'RBI official' about RBI's inadequacy to control inflation made the news, reports said.
Andy Burnham attends the opening speeches on the first day of the Labour Party Conference at Liverpool Experience Campus on September 27, 2026 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)
