B N Adarkar was the ninth Governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 4 May 1970 to 15 June 1970. His term was the second shortest (42 days) after Amitav Ghosh who had served for only 20 days. His term was short since he was filling in as interim before S Jaganathan too over.^[1]

Unlike his predecessors who were from the Indian Civil Service, Adarkar was an economist and had served in the office of the Economic Adviser of the Government of India. Prior to that he had held various important positions in the Ministry of Commerce & Industry. He was the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank before filling in as interim Governor.

During his tenure the Indian Rupee notes commemorating the birth centenary of Mahatma Gandhi was reissued on 24 August 1970, of denominations Rs 2, 5, 10, and 100, these notes bear his signature, the earlier issue bears the signature of L. K. Jha.^[2] Due to his short interim term his signature does not appear on any other Indian rupee notes.

He also served as India’s Executive Director at the IMF. Adarkar was involved in the establishment of the National Institute of Bank Management.