Finance Minister P Chidambaram held informal consultations on Wednesday on possible candidates for the Reserve Bank deputy governor's post.

Former International Monetary Fund chief economist Raghuram Rajan, 45, and the finance ministry's chief economic adviser Arvind Virmani, 59, are said to be in contention.

The position may fall vacant if current Deputy Governor Rakesh Mohan were to move on to a teaching assignment or join a multilateral institution overseas. Of the four deputies at Mint Road, one position is meant for a monetary economist.

Rajan is currently professor of finance at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago and considered one of the most promising of economists of his generation. He has a doctorate in economics from MIT.

Earlier this April, a committee headed by Rajan had submitted a detailed roadmap on financial sector reforms to the Planning Commission.

Virmani, who joined the government in 1987 from the World Bank, has held a number of assignments since. Among these was a stint as adviser to Manmohan Singh, when the latter was finance minister, between 1991 and 1993.

Virmani's name has also been mentioned as one of the contenders to chair the powerful Competition Commission of India.