Benegal Rama Rau

Sir Benegal Rama Rau CIE, ICS was an Indian diplomat and career civil servant. He was the fourth Governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 1 July 1949 to 14 January 1957.

Early life and family

He was born in a Konkani-speaking Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin family from Mangalore. His elder brother Sir Benegal Narsing Rau was an Indian civil servant, jurist, diplomat and legal adviser of the Constituent Assembly, and his younger brother B Shiva Rao was a journalist and politician.
He was educated at Presidency College of Madras, and at King's College in Cambridge.
He married Dhanvanthi Rama Rau, of Kashmiri Brahmin descent and a leader in the Indian women's rights movement who was the International President of Planned Parenthood and the founder of Family Planning Association of India. Their younger daughter Santha Rama Rau became a travel writer, marrying and settling in the United States.

Career

Joining the Indian Civil Service in 1919, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1930, and was knighted in 1939. He was a member of the Indian Civil Service. While he had the longest tenure as Governor of the RBI, it was cut short when he resigned just before the expiry of his second extended term, due to differences with Finance Minister T. T. Krishnamachari.
On joining the ICS and before joining the RBI he held the following posts.

Under-Secretary and Deputy Secretary to the Government of Madras
Finance Department as Secretary to the Indian Taxation Committee
Finance Department as Deputy Secretary
Simons Commission as Financial Adviser
Industries Department Joint Secretary
Round Table Conference as Secretary
Indian Bill in the Joint Select Committee of Parliament
Deputy High Commissioner for India in London
High Commissioner for India in the Union of South Africa

When he returned to India, he was appointed Chairman of the Bombay Port Trust. After serving in the post he once again served as a diplomat as the Indian Ambassador to Japan, and as the Ambassador to the United States. His last position was as the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. He had been the longest-serving R.B.I Governor to date.