Revenue Secretary, Union Ministry of Finance, Sanjay Malhotra, has been appointed the 26th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). He will assume office on 11 December 2024 after the incumbent Governor, Shaktikanta Das, retires on 10 December 2024. The Appointment Committee of the Union Cabinet approved Sanjay Malhotra’s appointment as Governor of RBI on 9 December 2024. Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the meeting, which was attended by the Union Minister for Home Affairs and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah.
Term of Sanjay Malhotra as 26th RBI Governor
- Sanjay Malhotra has been appointed for three years, starting 11 December 2024. The central government can dismiss him before the completion of his tenure, or he can resign from his office.
- Under section 8 of the Reserve Bank of India Act 1934, the Central government appoints the Governor and four Deputy Governors of the RBI.
- According to the RBI Act 1934, the Governor or the Deputy Governor can be appointed for a maximum term of five years and is eligible for reappointment.
- It means that one term of the Governor or the Deputy Governor can be up to 5 years.
- Normally, the government appoints a Governor and Deputy Governor for three years, and if necessary, it reappoints them for another fresh term, as Shaktikanta Das was reappointed in 2021.
Sanjay Malhotra
- Sanjay Malhotra is an IAS officer of the 1990 batch of the Rajasthan Cadre who assumed the office of revenue secretary on December 1, 2022.
- He is an IITian and holds a degree in Computer Science Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur. He also holds a Master’s in Public Policy from Princeton University, United States of America.
Shaktikanta Das
- Shaktikanta Das, an IAS Officer and former secretary at the Departments of Revenue and Economic Affairs assumed office as the 25th Governor of the RBI on 12 December 2021.
- He was reappointed for a term of three years in 2021, and he retired on 10 December 2024.
- He is the fifth governor of the RBI and has a tenure of six years.
- In 2023, he became the second RBI Governor after Raghuram Rajan(2014)to have won the ‘Governor of the Year award’ of Central Banking, an international economic research journal.
- He received an ‘A+’ rating for two years in a row and was ranked among the top three central bankers in the Global Finance Central Banker Report Card 2024 by U.S based Global Finance magazine.
RBI Governor
- Reserve Bank of India was established on 1 April 1935 under the provision of the Reserve Bank of India Act 1934.
- Initially, its headquarters or central office was in Calcutta(now Kolkata), but it was shifted to Bombay(now Mumbai) in 1937.
- First Governor – Sir Osborne Smith (01-04-1935 to 30-06-1937)
- First Indian Governor- Chintaman Dwarkanath Deshmukh (11-08-1943 to 30-06-1949)Longest tenure
- Shortest Tenure -K. G. Ambegaokar 14-01-1957 to 28-02-1957