Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra has been appointed Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). He will take charge from Wednesday for three years, the government said in a statement.

Mr Malhotra is a 1990-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from the Rajasthan cadre.

He is a Computer Science graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and has a Master’s in Public Policy from Princeton University, US.

In a career spanning over 33 years, Mr Malhotra has worked in several sectors including power, finance and taxation, information technology, mines etc.

Before he was appointed Revenue Secretary, he was Secretary in the Department of Financial Services.

He has extensive experience in finance and taxation at the state as well as the central government, according to information on the Department of Revenue website.

It says Mr Malhotra played an instrumental role in tax policy formulation for direct and indirect taxes.

Foreign Secretary Vikran Misri said today that he conveyed New Delhi’s concerns to Dhaka over the attacks on minorities in Bangladesh. In a meeting with Bangladeshi Foreign Adviser Mohammad Touhid Hossain, Mr Misri conveyed that the attacks on religious institutions and places of worship are “regrettable”.

Mr Misri also conveyed to Bangladesh’s interim government that India wishes to have a “positive, constructive, and mutually beneficial” relationship. Speaking to the media after his high-level meeting, Mr Misri said, “I have underlined today India’s desire to work closely with the interim government of Bangladesh Authority.”

Speaking about the issue of minorities, Mr Misri said, “We discussed recent developments and I conveyed our concerns including those related to the safety and welfare of minorities. We also discussed regrettable incidents of attacks on cultural and religious properties.”

Calling the discussions “frank, candid, and constructive”, Mr Misri said the discussions allowed both sides “the opportunity to take stock of our ties”.

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri arrived in Dhaka earlier today for a day-long visit. This was the first high-level meet between the two sides amid strained bilateral ties following the ouster of Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August.

Mr Misri first held a meeting with his counterpart – foreign secretary Jashim Uddin. The meeting was held at the state guest house Padma. The two foreign secretaries first held one-on-one talks and then a formal meeting was held where delegates from both sides were present.

Diplomatic ties between India and Bangladesh have faced testing times since the ouster of Sheikh Hasina after a massive anti-government protest in August. Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus took over as Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser days after Ms Hasina fled to India.

Ties between both countries worsened after multiple incidents of violence in Bangladesh targeting the Hindu minority citizens. There has been a sharp rise in incidents of mob violence, vandalism of property, and desecration at places of worship targeting the minorities. To add to this, there has even been a crackdown on Hindu priests by the interim government in Bangladesh. Two Hindu priests are being prosecuted and there are concerns over their captivity.

Dhaka has said that the sporadic violence in Bangladesh was a manifestation of an outburst of anger against the leaders and activists of the ousted Hasina regime and the Hindus who were harassed were related to her Awami League party and violence had nothing to do with their religious faith.
 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will respond to the debate on the 75th anniversary of the Constitution in the Lok Sabha on Saturday. The debate itself will begin on Friday. The debate in the Rajya Sabha will begin the December 16) and extend to December 17. It will be initiated, and led, by Home Minister Amit Shah.

Opposition parties had demanded discussions in both Houses to mark the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution. The opposition has also been targeting the ruling BJP over claims the third Modi government will look to alter the Constitution on fundamental level.

These claims were among the major campaign issues raised by the Congress and other opposition parties ahead of the April-June federal election; the Congress has since continued to attack the BJP on this issue, with senior leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra frequently waving red-bound copies of the Constitution at speeches to make their points.

Both, in fact, took their oaths as MP with a copy in their hands.

The BJP has, more than, once dismissed such claims.

Mr Shah pointed out in May the first and second Modi governments could have done exactly that but did not; “We had the mandate to change the Constitution for 10 years but did it…”

The opposition’s red flags on this issue, however, were raised again after recent comments by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, who told NDTV India, “People have looked at the Constitution with different views at different times… amendments have been made too…”