Sanjay Malhotra Appointed as 26th Governor of RBI: Government of India Surprises with a Smart Choice

As current governor Shaktikanta Das bids farewell on Tuesday 10 Dec, Sanjay Malhotra takes charge as the 26th RBI Governor on December 11, he has decades of experience which he will bring to this role.

New Governor of RBI :

On Monday, the government of India(GOI) surprised everyone by appointing 56 year old Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra as the 26th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. He will take the position of Shaktikanta Das, whose six-year term ends on Tuesday. Malhotra has been given a 3-year term starting on December 11. Malhotra said that “He was also surprised with the appointment, and he was still adjusting to the news when he left North Block on Monday evening”.

Who is Sanjay Malhotra? and his Education:

Mr. Malhotra, an IAS officer from the 1990 batch of the Rajasthan cadre, previously he worked as the Revenue Secretary to the Government of India. Before that, he was working an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the revenue department from October 2022. He holds a computer science BTech degree from IIT Kanpur from 1989 batch and Master’s degree in public policy from Princeton University, USA.

Few interesting and lesser known facts about Sanjay Malhotra and RBI Governor:

3rd IITian – After Raghuram Rajan (IIT Delhi) and D Subbarao (IIT Kharagpur), he will be the third IITian to hold the important position at the RBI’s 18th-floor office.

Malhotra Surname – He will also be the second person with the Malhotra surname to lead the RBI, after R N Malhotra, who served from 1985 to 1990.

Diverse Career experience – Throughout his career, he has worked in various sectors including power, IT, mining, finance and taxation. He was the Secretary (Revenue) in the Ministry of Finance. Before this, he was the Secretary of the Department of Financial Services in the Ministry of Finance, Government of India. He has also served as the Chairman and Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Corporation(REC) and as an Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Power. Earlier in his career, he held various positions in the Rajasthan Government

Nirmala Sitharaman’s trustworthy guy – He has the trust of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who often asks him for technical advice on complex tax issues.  Read here new banking rules