Govt appoints Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra as 26th RBI Governor
NEW DELHI, DEC 9 : The government on Monday appointed Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra as the 26th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet cleared Malhotra’s name, who has been appointed as the RBI Governor for three years, starting Wednesday.
Malhotra, a 1990 Batch Rajasthan Cadre IAS Officer, will replace Shaktikanta Das, whose tenure ends on Tuesday (December 10, 2024).
Malhotra, who will be the 26th RBI Governor, is an engineering graduate in computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and has a Master’s in Public Policy from Princeton University, US.
In his career of over 33 years, he has worked in multifarious sectors, including power, finance and taxation, information technology, and mines, among others.
Presently, he is the Secretary (Revenue) in the Ministry of Finance.
In his previous assignment, he held the post of Secretary in the Department of Financial Services under the Ministry of Finance.
He has extensive experience in finance and taxation at the state as well as the central government levels.
As a part of his present assignment, he plays an instrumental role in tax policy formulation in respect of direct and indirect taxes.
The appointment comes as a surprise as the market was expecting a third innings for Das, who has successfully settled the frayed relationship that Mint road had with the government before his appointment.
Had he been given another term, Das would have become the longest-serving governor since the independence. The current record rests with Benegal Rama Rau who had a 7.5-year term in the mid-1950s through early 1960s. While Bimal Jalan and RN Malhotra had also received extensions, both chose to step down early.
The delay in the announcement has sparked speculation that Das was on his way to a third term as in the past all the extensions were announced well in advance. Das visited the finance minister on Saturday further speculated that he would get a third extension.
In fact, it was this fraught relationship that led to the historic resignation of his predecessor Urjit Patel before his term on December 10, 2018.
From a tenure perspective Das had a tumultuous time at the corner office of the monetary authority’s headquarters in the southern tip of the megapolis beginning with the Codi pandemic and then the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the resultant impact on both supply chains and the resultant ripple effect on inflation.
-PTI
