I took over as the 23rd Governor of the Reserve Bank of India on 4 September 2013. The rupee had been in free fall in August, inflation and the current account deficit were high. Even though Mr Chidambaram, who had been brought back as Finance Minister in 2012 when Mr Pranab Mukherjee became the President of India, had taken an axe to the fiscal deficit, it was still large. With elections looming in May 2014, and the possibility of a hung parliament, investors were getting nervous.
