Reserve Bank of India [Get Quote] Governor Y V Reddy has been awarded an honorary fellowship by the prestigious London School of Economics and Political Science for his contribution to the cause of the under-privileged.

Conferring the Fellowship, Lord Stern of Brenford, current holder of the I G Patel Chair, outlined some of Reddy's achievements, laying emphasis on his commitment to help the under-privileged.

"Dr Reddy is an outstanding individual who has distinguished himself through his knowledge, service and commitment not only to India but to the wider global community. We are honoured that he is accepting an honorary fellowship at the School.

"He is described as the governor who has the courage to implement policies which are fair and for the benefit of all people, motivated by strong principles of economic management and constantly recognising the needs of poor people. He has been recognised as a leader who is firm, flexible and fair and well respected by all his staff," Lord Stern said.

Described by one colleague as a "scholar and a gentleman", Reddy has been Governor of the Reserve Bank since 2003, is visiting professor at several Indian universities and has served as executive director on the Board of the International Monetary Fund for India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Bhutan.

He was also instrumental in setting up the I G Patel chair and India Observatory at LSE in honour of the School's former Director.

Reddy joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1964 after graduating from Vivekananda College in Chennai and obtained an MA in Economics at the Madras University and PhD at the Osmania University.

Reddy worked in the Finance Ministry, later becoming Secretary to the Government of India, and had a six-year spell as Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.

Reddy is Chairman of the BIS Asian Consultative Council (ACC) and chairs SAARCFINANCE, a group of governors of the Central Banks of SAARC member countries.

His career in international finance has always included a commitment to the cause of the under-privileged.

Reddy has said: "You can be an economic powerhouse but your task is to make sure that people inhabiting the country have a reasonable standard of living. You don't have social insurance mechanisms, you don't have risk mitigation mechanisms for a large number of people."

He has always backed the Reserve Bank's central financial inclusion programme, which encourages banks to reach out to India's poor and translates documents into several of the country's regional languages.

Reddy was awarded one of the five new honorary fellowships by LSE in 2008. He accepted the honour during a graduation ceremony in London on Thursday.