UPDATE 2-India cbank deputy to resign, teach at Stanford

MUMBAI, May 4 - Rakesh Mohan, a deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India said on Monday he will step down on June 10 to take up a stint as a professor at Stanford University.

Mohan's term, which started in July 2005, was to have ended in January 2010. The central bank said in a statement that Mohan has been appointed as consulting professor at the Stanford Centre for International Development at Stanford University.

"Yes, its true," Mohan told Reuters when asked if accepting this assignment meant he was resigning from the central bank.

Mohan, who oversees monetary policy and financial markets among other responsibilities in his current role at the Reserve Bank of India, will take up his assignment on June 15 for a period of six months, the statement said.

Mohan's resignation comes four months after another deputy governor, Vithaldas Leeladhar, the banking supervision head, retired in early December. Leeladhar's post is still vacant.

The central bank has two other deputies -- Usha Thorat and Shyamala Gopinath.

Governor Duvvuri Subbarao assumed office in September 2008 near the peak of the global financial crisis.

HUMAN TOUCH

Born on January. 14, 1948, Rakesh Mohan brought with him an accessible style which was a shift from the more aloof leadership of some of his predecessors.

"He is loved and respected in the RBI family both for his vast knowledge, competence and dedication as also for the human touch he brings to every issue," Subbarao said in the statement on Monday.

Mohan has had two stints as deputy governor of the central bank - the first one from 2002 to 2004. He is viewed as a veteran policy maker and has authored three books on urban economics.

He started his career as an economist at the World Bank in 1976 and has held the post of governor at the World Bank briefly. He has also been a chief economic adviser to the Indian finance ministry and a member of the prime minister's economic council.

Credited with modernising RBI publications, even down to the fonts, the articulate Mohan was not afraid of engaging with the market or India's demanding media.

He is also reputed to have an acerbic wit and senior bankers say he wears down critics of central bank policy with good-natured debate.

An engineering graduate, Mohan also holds an economics degree from Yale University and a doctorate from Princeton.