Who Is Sanjay Malhotra? An IAS Officer Becoming The 26th Governor Of RBI

Sanjay Malhotra is appointed as the new governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as Shaktikanta Das' six-year regime comes to an end on December 10. Das is not going to continue his third term at RBI. So, who is Sanjay Malhotra? An Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Officer of 1990 Batch Rajasthan Cadre, with an impressive career of more than 33 years to become 26th governor of India's apex bank.

On December 9, in the official statement, it said, "The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Shri Sanjay Malhotra, IAS (RJ:1990, Secretary, Department of Revenue as Governor, Reserve Bank of India for a period of three years."

Malhotra will join the RBI office as governor with effect from December 11, 2024, as Das exits on Tuesday. So far, Das has served as RBI governor for six years, starting from December 12, 2018, to December 10, 2024. Notably, Das was re-appointed in 2021.

The Department of Revenue secretary would join RBI at a time when CPI inflation is at its highest level in over a year, and above RBI's upper tolerance limit, while interest rates have been unchanged since February 2023. RBI has received criticism for not cutting rates when other global central banks have started easing their benchmark rates, especially the US Federal Reserve who trimmed its key fund rates by 75 bps in the past two policies.

Let's find out who is Sanjay Malhotra.

As per the Revenue Department's website, Sanjay Malhotra is an Indian Administrative Service Officer of the 1990 Batch Rajasthan Cadre. He 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, USA.

Demonstrating leadership and excellence in his career of over 33 years, Malhotra has worked in multifarious sectors including power, finance and taxation, information technology, mines etc. Presently he is Secretary (Revenue) in Ministry of Finance.

In his prior assignment, he held the post of Secretary in the Department of Financial Services under the Ministry of Finance, Government of India.

The department stated that Malhotra has extensive experience in finance and taxation at the State as well as the Central Government. As a part of his present assignment, he plays an instrumental role in tax policy formulation in respect of direct and indirect taxes.

What Role Does the RBI Governor Have?

The role of RBI is to regulate the issue of Bank notes and keeping of reserves with a view to securing monetary stability in India and generally to operate the currency and credit system of the country to its advantage; to have a modern monetary policy framework to meet the challenge of an increasingly complex economy, to maintain price stability while keeping in mind the objective of growth in the country.

While as the governor of RBI, his role is pivotal as they are the custodian of India's financial reserves. Some of the key powers that RBI governors have are - control of the monetary, currency, and liquidity systems. They head the entire scheduled commercial banks in India, and they are key for signatures of currency notes, buying or selling reserves globally, ensuring fluidity of local currency and financial system, and further influencing micro and macro economies with their key measures and policies.

Coming to Das, who is an IAS Retd, a former Secretary of the Department of Revenue and Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India assumed charge as the 25th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India effective December 12, 2018. Immediately before his current assignment, he was acting as a Member, of the 15th Finance Commission and G20 Sherpa of India.

As RBI governor, Das has received the 'Central Banker of the Year, Asia-Pacific 2020' award by the London-based magazine-The Banker for his efforts to make the banking system more robust. He was also titled as the 'Governor of the Year 2023' by the London-based financial journal Central Banking. He has been rated as "A+" in the Global Finance Central Banker Report Cards 2023 and 2024 consecutively, placing him at the top of the list of three central bank governors with an A rating.