India has appointed current revenue secretary Sanjay Malhotra as the new Reserve Bank of India governor, a notification from the government’s cabinet appointments committee on Monday showed.
Malhotra, who has previously also held the post of secretary in India’s financial services department, will take over from Shaktikanta Das whose six-year term concludes on Tuesday.
The Indian Administrative Service Officer, who over the last three decades has worked across sectors including power, finance, taxation, information technology and mines, has been appointed for a three-year term.
Das took over as central bank chief in 2018, after previous governor Urjit Patel resigned before the end of his term following a difficult relationship with the government.
Das had helped stabilise relations with the government while also overseeing a period of recovery in India’s financial sector and most recently led an effort to prevent a build-up of risk, asking lenders to avoid all “forms of exuberance”.
The central bank, under Das, has also been seen as more interventionist in financial markets, stamping out volatility in the exchange rate to decadal lows.
Reuters
