Who is Sanjay Malhotra, the new RBI governor?
The government on Monday appointed Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra as the 26th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet cleared Malhotra’s name, who has been appointed as the RBI Governor for three years, starting Wednesday.
Malhotra, a 1990 Batch Rajasthan Cadre IAS Officer, will replace Shaktikanta Das, whose tenure ends on Tuesday (December 10, 2024).
Malhotra 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, US.
Presently, he is the Secretary (Revenue) in the Ministry of Finance. Malhotra took over the role in December 2022, succeeding Tarun Bajaj.
In his career of over 33 years, he has worked in multifarious sectors, including power, finance and taxation, information technology, and mines. Malhotra has an extensive experience in finance and taxation at the state as well as the central government levels. Throughout his career, he has held several key positions, including the Chairman and Managing Director of REC Limited (a government-owned public sector undertaking) and Secretary in the Department of Financial Services.
Earlier, during his tenure as Chairman and Managing Director of REC Limited (a Maharatna company), he led the organisation through significant growth and modernisation phases.
As Secretary in the Department of Financial Services, he oversaw reforms in the financial and banking sectors. Malhotra became Secretary (Revenue) on December 1, 2022, after an eight-month stint as Secretary in the Department of Financial Services. As Secretary (Revenue), he has been at the forefront of tax policy formulation for both direct and indirect taxes.
Malhotra has played a pivotal role in driving robust tax collections, ensuring critical support for India’s fiscal health, rationalisation of capital gains tax in this year’s Budget, rationalisation of slabs in the new tax regime to encourage migration from the old tax regime, and removal of windfall gain tax.
In addition to his tax-related responsibilities, he has managed the government’s non-tax revenue streams.
Malhotra also served as the ex-officio Secretary to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, where he played a key role in aligning the interests of states and the central government during discussions at the GST Council meetings.
Challenges
As the new RBI Governor, Malhotra will take charge during a challenging period amid rising inflation and lowering economic growth. The CPI inflation continues to exceed the RBI’s target, reaching a 14-month peak of 6.21 per cent in October. Also, the RBI faces mounting pressure to reduce interest rates, particularly as GDP growth declined to 5.4 per cent in the July-September quarter, marking a seven-quarter low.
