My View on "How did a former RBI man end up on Yes Bank Board ?" - A.Chandramouliswaran

There is a rule in the Central Government Pension regulations relating to taking up employment after retirement. The government employee is not permitted to take up any employment within a period of two years after retirement without the permission of the Government. The scrutiny of such applications is expected to be done to ensure that the government employee was not in such a position where he had a regulatory role over the organisation offering employment. In the RBI Pension regulations, we have incorporated a similar provision. This is often circumvented by accepting appointment as an Adviser/Consultant and the permission is freely granted. After all, the appointment is cleared by someone who, sooner or later, would be finding himself at the other end and would expect his appointment to be cleared without any fuss. In the case of IAS officers, there is no dearth of such post retirement positions in the Governmental/Quasi- governmental organisations. There were two articles in the "Indian Express" some time ago about the number of positions occupied by retired IAS officers in CAT, as CIC, Principal Information Commissioner, CAG, Chairman of TRAI, members of Boards of companies such as ONGC, HPCL etc etc. In the RBI itself, even Deputy Governors ( not to speak of others down the line) have been allowed to take up positions in the Advisory Boards of Foreign banks, part time Chairman of private sector banks etc after their tenure in the RBI was completed. In this milieu, permission granted to M.R. Srinivasan ( who, incidentally, is a highly flexible person--please do not ask me what flexibility means!!)  should not surprise anyone and the rule relating to prior permission for taking up post retirement position has become a laughable one and attracts nothing but contempt. I have known of some dedicated, intelligent and upright former colleagues of mine in the RBI suddenly changing colours a year or two and becoming 'flexible' prior to retirement with an eye on post retirement positions! There is total lack of morality in the offer and acceptance of post retirement jobs by Government servants and members of the top management in organisations like RBI, SBI and other PSUs. 

- A.Chandramouliswaran