Das was appointed Union Economic Affairs Secretary by the ACC in August 2014, he assumed the office of Secretary on 31 August 2015, and admitted it and simultaneously superannuated from service on 28 May 2017, after being given a three-monthextension by the government. During his tenure as Union Economic Affairs Secretary, Das was widely regarded as one of the most powerful civil servants in India.
Post retirement
Post his retirement from the IAS, Das was appointed a member of the FifteenthFinance Commission by the ACC. In addition, he was appointed as India's Sherpa to the G20 by the ACC. In December 2018, on his appointment as the governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Das resigned from his position in the FifteenthFinance Commission.
Das was appointed Governor of the Reserve Bank of India by the ACC on 11 December 2018 for a period of threeyears, replacing Urjit Patel who had resigned the day before. Das' appointment as RBI governor received mostly positive responses, with DBS Bank's head of markets for India at Singapore, Ashish Vaidya, saying that previous governors of the RBI with an IAS background, such as Y. Venugopal Reddy and Duvvuri Subbarao, had been successful and that Das' "cordial relations with the government likely help policy negotiations." S. S. Mundra, a former deputy governor of the RBI, said Das was a "good and balanced choice" for RBI governorship and had "a good understanding of the whole of the financial sector both from the ministry and also in his interactions with the RBI." A former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India C. Rangarajan, said Das had "experience in economic affairs" and would "make a good governor". Gaurav Shah, a senior vice president at Geojit Financial Services, said "a name like Shaktikanta Das carries track record, experience, credentials, credibility and respect along with him." On the other hand, Nobel laureate and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Abhijit Banerjee, said Das' appointment posed a lot of "frightening" questions on governance of autonomous public institutions. Subramanian Swamy, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the largest party of the ruling National Democratic Alliancecoalition, and a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha, criticised Das, calling him a "corrupt person" at an event at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad. Das assumed charge as RBI governor on 12 December 2018. Reactions of the markets to Das' appointment was positive, with BSE SENSEX gaining 629points and NIFTY 50 increasing by 188points. As RBI governor, Das serves as the ex-officio chairperson of the Monetary Policy Committee of the central bank.
