Jalan graduated from
Presidency College,
Calcutta, and later attended
Cambridge and
Oxford but no further detail as to his course of study is known publicly. Jalan held several administrative and advisory positions in the Government of India, namely, Chief Economic Adviser in the 1980s, Banking Secretary between 1985 and 1989 and
Finance Secretary,
Ministry of Finance between January 1991 and September 1992. In 1992-93 and then from 1998–2008, Jalan was the President of the Governing Body of the National Council of Applied Economic Research,
Planning Commission in
New Delhi. He was the
Governor of
Reserve Bank of India for two terms. The
Government of India reappointed Jalan as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, first for a period of five years commencing 22 November 1997 to 21 November 2002 and again for a further period of two years commencing from 22 November 2002 and ending 21 November 2004. He was succeeded by
Y. Venugopal Reddy on 6 September 2003. During his tenure the
Indian Rupee note of 1000 denomination was introduced. == Selected works ==