Anand Mahindra reappointed to RBI board; ex-ISRO chief S Somanath in

The government has reappointed Anand Mahindra and appointed former ISRO chief S Somanath as non-official directors on the RBI's Central Board. The tenures of Venu Srinivasan, Pankaj Patel, and Ravindra Dholakia have ended in this reconstitution.

Anand Mahindra, Chairman of the Mahindra Group. (File Photo: ANI)

The Union government has reappointed industrialist Anand Mahindra as a part-time, non-official director on the Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), appointed former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman S Somanath Sreedhara Panicker to the board and ended the tenure of Venu Srinivasan as a non-official director.

New Directors Appointed

The RBI, in a press release issued on Monday, August 24, separately also announced the appointment of Janmejaya Kumar Sinha, Syed Akbaruddin and Annie George Mathew as part-time, non-official directors on the Central Board. The three have been appointed for four years with effect from August 24, 2026, or until further orders, whichever is earlier.

Details of Board Reconstitution

Mahindra was first appointed to the RBI Central Board in June 2022 along with Srinivasan, Pankaj Ramanbhai Patel and Ravindra H Dholakia. While Mahindra has now been reappointed for another four-year term, Srinivasan has not been given a fresh term. Srinivasan's initial four-year appointment was scheduled to run from June 2022 to June 2026. The government's appointment order provided that the directors would hold office for four years or until further orders, whichever was earlier. Srinivasan continued on the board until the Centre's latest reconstitution.

Somanath has been appointed as a part-time, non-official director for four years. His appointment, along with Mahindra's reappointment, forms part of the Centre's fresh composition of the non-official directors on the RBI board. The reconstitution has also ended the tenure of Patel and Dholakia, who were appointed to the board alongside Mahindra and Srinivasan in 2022. The latest composition therefore retains Mahindra from that group, while bringing in Somanath and removing the other outgoing non-official directors.

The RBI's latest announcement also brings Sinha, Akbaruddin and Mathew onto the Central Board for four years from August 24. The changes have reduced the size of the Central Board from 15 to 14 members, marking a downsizing of the board as part of the Centre's latest reconstitution.

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