The Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Rakesh Mohan resigns from his post before the end of his term in order to take up a teaching assignment at Stanford University in the United States.

Although Mr Mohan quits central bank but his it would not be effective immediately. He is expected to leave RBI on June 10, six months before the end of his term in January 2010. He has taken the move to join Stanford Centre for International Development as a Distinguished Consulting Professor. "Rakesh Mohan has been offered an appointment as the distinguished consulting professor at the Stanford Centre for International Development at Stanford University," said RBI in a statement.

Rakesh Mohan is also one of India's senior-most economic policymakers and this was the second time he had been holding the post of Deputy Governor of RBI. Earlier also he had served this post from September 9, 2002 to October 31, 2004. Following this position he had moved to the Union Finance Ministry as the Economic Affairs Secretary. In July 2005, Mohan returned to the position of deputy governor.

In RBI, he had been in charge of monetary policy, financial markets, economic research and statistics.

Mr Mohan was also considered to be a frontrunner for the post of RBI governor to succeed Y V Reddy but the government appointed finance secretary D Subbarao for the position. Commenting on the move, Subbarao said, "Over the last several months, as I traversed a steep learning curve, I have grown to depend on him for advice and counsel. All of us in RBI will miss Mohan's counsel, expertise and his disarming candour."

Asked about the sudden decision, Mr Mohan said, "Decisions are not taken hastily. I have received an offer from Stanford University. I will be guiding doctorate students and be associated with Stanford's Centre for International Development."

After MR Mohan's leaves the central bank, the government would have to look for another deputy governor. Meanwhile the replacement for V Leeladha's position is still pending. However the Punjab National Bank Chairman and Managing Director K C Chakrabarty and Bank of India Chairman and Managing Director T S Narayanasami have been short-listed to replace Leeladhar whose term ended in March.