The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was established in 1935 and nationalised on January 1, 1949.
The general administration and direction of RBI is managed by a Central Board of Directors consisting of 20 members which includes 1 Governor, 4 Deputy Governors, 1 Government official appointed by the Union Government of India to give representation to important stratas in economic life of the country.
Read in Hindi : भारतीय रिजर्व बैंक के गवर्नर की सूची
C. D. Deshmukh was the first Indian governor. At present Shaktikanta Das is the Governor of RBI, who took over from Urjit R. Patel on 11 December, 2018.
| No. | Governors | Term of office |
| 1. | Osborne Smith | 1 April, 1935 – 30 June, 1937 |
| 2. | James Braid Taylor | 1 July, 1937 – 17 February, 1943 |
| 3. | C. D. Deshmukh | 11 August, 1943 – 30 June, 1949 |
| 4. | Benegal Rama Rau | 1 July, 1949 – 14 January, 1957 |
| 5. | K. G. Ambegaonkar | 14 January, 1957 – 28 February, 1957 |
| 6. | H. V. R. Iyengar | 1 March, 1957 – 28 February, 1962 |
| 7. | P. C. Bhattacharya | 1 March, 1962 – 30 June, 1967 |
| 8. | L. K. Jha | 1 July, 1967 – 3 May, 1970 |
| 9. | B. N. Adarkar | 4 May, 1970 – 15 June, 1970 |
| 10. | S. Jagannathan | 16 June, 1970 – 19 May, 1975 |
| 11. | N. C. Sen Gupta | 19 May, 1975 – 19 August, 1975 |
| 12. | K. R. Puri | 20 August, 1975 – 2 May, 1977 |
| 13. | M. Narasimham | 3 May, 1977 – 30 November, 1977 |
| 14. | I. G. Patel | 1 December, 1977 – 15 September, 1982 |
| 15. | Manmohan Singh | 16 September, 1982 – 14 January, 1985 |
| 16. | Amitav Ghosh | 15 January, 1985 – 4 February, 1985 |
| 17. | R. N. Malhotra | 4 February, 1985 – 22 December, 1990 |
| 18. | S. Venkitaramanan | 22 December, 1990 – 21 December, 1992 |
19.
|
C. Rangarajan | 22 December, 1992 – 21 November, 1997 |
| 20. | Bimal Jalan | 22 November, 1997 – 6 September, 2003 |
| 21. | Y. V. Reddy | 6 September, 2003 – 5 September, 2008 |
| 22. | D. Subbarao | 5 September, 2008 – 4 September, 2013 |
| 23. | Raghuram Rajan | 4 September, 2013 – 4 September, 2016 |
| 24. | Urjit R. Patel | 4 September, 2016 – 10 December, 2018 |
| 25. | Shaktikanta Das | 11 December, 2018 – Incumbent |
