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(Bloomberg) — India’s new central bank head is a detail-oriented bureaucrat known for working long hours. That discipline will come in handy as he looks to reverse India’s growth slowdown and keep price rises in check.
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Sanjay Malhotra, the Princeton-educated revenue secretary and three-decade veteran of India’s civil service, is the second career bureaucrat in a row to lead the Reserve Bank of India, replacing Shaktikanta Das after six years in the post.
Colleagues and other officials describe Malhotra, 56, as a savvy communicator and a meticulous administrator, known for working late, drinking lots of coconut water and going into the weeds on India’s byzantine tax laws — at times demonstrating more knowledge in meetings than the subject-matter experts reporting to him.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appointment of Malhotra came as a last-minute surprise to many in the government. Described by officials as a “dark horse” whose appointment was like “pulling a rabbit out of the hat,” Malhotra comes with a low profile and a history of shunning the spotlight — qualities that likely worked in his favor with an Indian leader known for his preference for team players over outspoken challengers.
While Malhotra’s precise views on monetary policy remain something of a mystery, analysts and officials say his years in the Finance Ministry have given him a consensus-building approach that prioritizes economic growth and revenue generation. Officials also say he won the confidence of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman along with Modi.
A Finance Ministry spokesperson didn’t respond to a request for a comment.
In one of his few public appearances ahead of Monday’s announcement, he told tax officials to keep economic growth in mind and avoid saddling businesses with overly large tax demands.
“Revenue comes in only when there is some income,” he told officers at the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, according to local media reports. “Therefore, we have to be very cautious so that we do not, as they say, kill the golden goose.”
As the head of India’s central bank, Malhotra inherits the management of an economy beset with the dual challenge of rising prices and slowing growth. Last month, the RBI said the economy expanded at a seven-quarter low of 5.4% between July and September, putting pressure on the bank to reduce what other top officials in Modi’s government have said are overly high borrowing costs.
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