Sanjay Malhotra took charge as the 26th Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday, December 11. He succeeds Shaktikanta Das whose tenure ended on Tuesday.

A seasoned bureaucrat, Malhotra, arrived at the headquarter of India’s central bank in Mumbai on Wednesday morning, where he was welcomed by senior RBI staffers.

Malhotra’s appointment was confirmed by the RBI through a post on X which read: “Shri Sanjay Malhotra takes charge as the 26th Governor of Reserve Bank of India for the next 3 years w.e.f December 11, 2024.”

Malhotra, who recently served as the Revenue Secretary, signed the documents to take the charge of the important institution that performs a variety of roles.

Deputy Governors Swaminathan J, M Rajeshwar Rao, and T Rabi Sankar were present when he assumed charge.

Malhotra, a 1990-batch Rajasthan cadre IAS officer, comes at the helm of the RBI at a very critical juncture, where growth and inflation balance has ”unsettled” as per his predecessor Das.

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GDP growth declined to a seven-quarter low of 5.4 per cent in the September quarter, while the October headline inflation was above the 6 per cent mark set for the central bank by the government.

Under the governorship of Das, the RBI maintained a status quo on key rates for 11 consecutive meetings over nearly two years as it prioritised to tame inflation.

However, with Malhotra taking the charge, analysts are expecting that the central bank to cut interest rates at the forthcoming policy review in February.

Malhotra has more than 33 years of experience in public policy. Before his last post as the Revenue Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, he served as an officer on special duty (OSD) in the revenue department.

Earlier, he held the post of Secretary in the Department of Financial Services (DFS).

Malhotra is the ex-officio secretary of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council. He has worked in multifarious sectors, including power, finance and taxation, information technology, and mines, among others.

An engineering graduate in computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT Kanpur), Malhotra holds a master degree in Public Policy from Princeton University, the US.

He also has an extensive experience in finance and taxation both at the state and central government levels.

With inputs from agencies.

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Sanjay Malhotra takes charge as India’s central bank chief amid rate cut speculation