Revenue secy Sanjay Malhotra, 56, appointed RBI governor, takes over on Dec 11

Sanjay Malhotra, a 1990-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Rajasthan cadre, is an IIT Kanpur alumnus

NEW DELHI: The government on Monday announced the appointment of revenue secretary Sanjay Malhotra as the 26th governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) replacing governor Shaktikanta Das. Malhotra will take over on Wednesday.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has picked revenue secretary Sanjay Malhotra as the next governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on a three-year term (ANI FILE)

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved Malhotra’s appointment as governor of RBI for three years from December 11, 2024, an order by Manish Saxena, secretary to the ACC said.

Malhotra, a 1990-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Rajasthan cadre, is an IIT Kanpur alumnus. Prior to assuming the charge of revenue secretary, he was the financial services secretary in the department of financial services (DFS). The government on October 19, 2022 appointed him as the officer on special duty (OSD) in the revenue department to take over the position from incumbent Tarun Bajaj who was scheduled to retire on November 30.

Malhotra took over as revenue secretary on December 1, 2022. , with a long tenure in hand (up to February 29, 2028).

Prior to joining DFS – an arm of the Union finance ministry -- on February 8, 2022, Malhotra was chairman and managing director of REC Ltd. He is an engineering graduate in computer science from IIT, Kanpur and has a master’s degree in public policy from Princeton University, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s website. Malhotra was one of the directors in RBI’s Central Board as DFS secretary.

Governor Das would retire after six years of service at the apex position of the central bank, one of the longest-serving governors. Das was also an IAS officer and had held the positions of both revenue and economic affairs portfolios of the ministry of finance. He had assumed the charge of the 25th governor from December 12, 2018. At the time, he was a member of the 15th Finance Commission and the G20 Sherpa of India.