Former ISRO Chief S. Somanath Appointed to RBI Central Board
Anand Mahindra Reappointed as Part-Time Director; Somanath to Serve Four-Year Term on RBI’s Central Board
- Former ISRO Chairman S. Somanath appointed to RBI Central Board for four years.
- Appointment effective from August 20, 2026, as part-time non-official director.
- Anand Mahindra reappointed to the RBI Central Board for another four-year term.
- RBI board includes Governor Sanjay Malhotra, deputy governors and senior government officials.
GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 21st Aug: Former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman S. Somanath has been appointed as a part-time, non-official director on the Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a period of four years.
According to an official notification, Somanath’s appointment came into effect on August 20, 2026. He retired as ISRO Chairman in January 2025 after leading several landmark space missions and has since been serving as the Chancellor of Chanakya University near Bengaluru.
An accomplished aerospace engineer, Somanath has played a pivotal role in India’s space programme through various leadership positions before heading the country’s premier space agency.
In a separate notification, the RBI also reappointed industrialist Anand Mahindra as a part-time, non-official director on the Central Board for another four-year term.
The RBI Central Board currently includes Governor Sanjay Malhotra, Deputy Governors Swaminathan J., Poonam Gupta, S.C. Murmu, and Rohit Jain, along with Economic Affairs Secretary Anuradha Thakur and Financial Services Secretary Sanjay Lohia.
Other non-official directors on the board include Revathy Iyer, former Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General (Government Accounts), and Sachin Chaturvedi, Director General of the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS).
