New Delhi: Reserve Bank of India's deputy governor Viral Acharya has resigned from his post and will return to New York University Stern School of Business as an Economics professor.

Viral Acharya has quit six months before the completion of his term. Former governor of RBI, Urjit Patel had also resigned in December 2018.

Acharya’s decision has come two weeks ahead of the Union Budget presentation by the Centre.

A report by Money Control stated that Acharya had resigned a few weeks before June 6, when the last meeting of RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) was held. He will serve in RBI till August even though his term was to end in February. He had joined the RBI on January 23, 2017.

According to latest reports, Viral Acharya will join the New York University Stern School of Business as an Economics professor in August.

Reports claim that executive director of RBI, Michael Patra and principal economic adviser, Sanjeev Sanyal serving in the Ministry of Finance, are likely prospects for Viral Acharya’s replacement.

Viral Acharya had said that undermining the RBI's independence could be potentially catastrophic in a speech in October last year.