Once the Chief Election Commissioner of India, Rajiv Kumar has now been appointed by the HDFC Bank as its new chairman for a period of four years. He is best known for leading major banking reforms that strengthened India's public sector banks, and for later serving as Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) who also oversaw the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, where the largest number of voters participated.
Rajiv Kumar has a finance background, and also held the post of Secretary of the Department of Financial Services from 2017-2020.
What is Rajiv Kumar's new role at HDFC?
The HDFC Bank has approved the appointment of Rajiv Kumar as an Independent Director of the bank for a period of 4 years, starting today, June 30, 2026. He will also become the Part-time Chairman for 3 years after the RBI approves the appointment.
The appointment as Independent Director is “subject to the approval of Shareholders of the Bank”, the bank said in an exchange filing on the National Stock Exchange, according to news agency ANI.
Rajiv Kumar will be replacing Atanu Chakraborty, who abruptly resigned citing ethical concerns in March. “Certain happenings and practices within the bank, that I have observed over last two years, are not in congruence with my personal values and ethics,” the former bureaucrat had said while stepping away from the role.
Who is Rajiv Kumar?
Before being appointed as the new HDFC chairman. Rajiv Kumar has had two major roles - Secretary, Department of Financial Services (2017-2020), and the 25th Chief Election Commissioner of India before being replaced by current CEC Gyanesh Kumar.
{{/usCountry}}Before being appointed as the new HDFC chairman. Rajiv Kumar has had two major roles - Secretary, Department of Financial Services (2017-2020), and the 25th Chief Election Commissioner of India before being replaced by current CEC Gyanesh Kumar.
{{/usCountry}}While he held the key finance role up until 2020, Rajiv Kumar helped strengthen public sector banks, that had been grappling with many problems at the time.
“Through decisive policy direction and execution, Mr. Kumar led a comprehensive clean-up of public sector bank balance sheets by mandating transparent recognition and provisioning of NPAs and by enforcing accountability among borrowers under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code framework," a part of Kumar's profile on HDFC Bank's website read.
The bank also credited Rajiv Kumar with cleaning up bad loans, implementing the '4R strategy' of Recognition, Resolution, Recapitalisation, and Reforms, acting against illicit financial practices, and helping public sector banks return to sustained profitability.
"Fraud checks, specialised monitoring above ₹250 crore, and IT-based risk scoring on 34-plus factors replaced soft signals with loose controls, built into lending by large consortiums of often more than 25 banks. Opacity, suddenly, carried a cost. A total reset of the Creditor-Debtor relationship with a loud and clear message that money has to be lent prudentially and debtors must pay back," it added.
HDFC also disclosed that Kumar is not related to any other directors or key managerial personnel of the bank, news agency PTI reported.
Rajiv Kumar's CEC tenure
By the end of Rajiv Kumar's tenure as the Chief Election Commissioner, the Election Commission had often been accused by the Opposition of favouring the BJP. However, in his remarks as the outgoing poll panel chief, Kumar had said that the ECI is made a ‘scapegoat’ by those ‘unwilling to accept electoral outcomes.’
“The Commission, as an institution, often finds itself unfairly blamed by those unwilling to accept electoral outcomes. A pressing concern is the growing tendency to target election officials in the aftermath of electoral contests. It is perceived as a convenient scapegoat,” Rajiv Kumar had said.
He had also dismissed allegations of EVM fraud and electoral rolls tampering as unfounded, noting that "processes can't be judged by results".
(With inputs from PTI, ANI)