NEW DELHI: Ending speculations, government appointed Finance Secretary Duvuri Subbarao as the next RBI Governor whose foremost task would be containing inflation which is ruling over 12 per cent. Subbarao succeeds Y V Reddy as the 22nd Governor of the central bank.Subbarao has been appointed for a period of three years, Chidambaram said, adding the Act allows appointment for up to five years.

The Finance Minister said, he (Subbarao) would be eligible for reappointment.Reddy, who has taken various monetary measures to control spiraling prices, will be relinquishing office after completing five eventful years as head of the country's central bank.Subbarao, an alumni of IIT Kanpur topped the Civil Services Examination in 1972 and was assigned the Andhra Pradesh cadre.

He was elevated to Finance Secretary in May 2007 when he was Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs.Subbarao has also served as Secretary in Economic Advisory Council of the Prime Minister.Earlier, he was lead economist in World Bank and had worked on various issues in public finance in countries of Africa and East Asia.Subbarao did his MS in Economics from Ohio State University and was a Humphrey Fellow at MIT. He completed his Phd in Economics from Andhra University.