RBI deputy governor Viral Acharya, who was in charge of the monetary policy department, has resigned six months before the scheduled end of his term, sources said on Monday.

This is the second high-profile resignation in the past six months at RBI.

In December, governor Urjit Patel resigned nearly nine months before the end of his scheduled term amid talk that he had differences with the government.

Acharya had joined the central bank on January 23 last year after Patel was elevated to the post of governor in September 2016.

The RBI is now left with three deputy governors - N.S. Vishwanathan, B.P. Kanungo and M.K. Jain.

Acharya, a New York University economics professor who once called himself the 'poor man's Raghuram Rajan', was appointed for three years.

He took over at a time when the central bank was facing criticism for repeated changes in rules related to deposit and withdrawal of money, post-demonetisation.