A former economic affairs secretary from 2015 to 2017, Das worked closely with the central bank. He is currently a member of the Finance Commission of India, and the government's representative at the Group of 20 summits.
PM Modi initially brought Das into the Finance Ministry to head up the revenue department, later moving him to economic affairs, where he helped to spearhead the prime minister's controversial demonetisation drive in 2016.
On Monday (10 December) Urjit Patel stepped down from his position with immediate effect, citing "personal reasons". The government and the RBI have been at loggerheads for weeks over how much autonomy the central bank should have as the Modi-led government seeks to reduce curbs on lending and access RBI's surplus reserves.
