Former ISRO Chairman Somanath and Anand Mahindra appointed as Part-time Non-official Directors on the Board of RBI
The Government of India has appointed Shri Somanath Sreedhara Panicker and Shri Anand Gopal Mahindra as part-time, Non-official Director on the Central Board of Reserve Bank of India.
The Central Government has appointed Shri Somanath Sreedhara Panicker as part-time, Non-official Director on the Central Board of Reserve Bank of India for a period of four years with effect from August 20, 2026 or until further orders, whichever is earlier.
Shri Somanath Sreedhara Panicker is former Chairman of ISRO. Under his chairpersonship, ISRO carried out the third Indian lunar exploration mission named Chandrayaan-3. The lander named Vikram and the rover named Pragyan landed near the lunar south pole region on 23 August 2023 at 18:04 IST, making India the first country to successfully land a spacecraft near the lunar south pole and the fourth country to demonstrate soft landing on the Moon.
Somanath was born in a Malayali Nair family as a child of V. Sreedhara Panicker, a Hindi teacher, and Thankamma at Thuravoor in Alappuzha district of Kerala.
Somanath studied at St. Augustine’s High School, Aroor, and completed the Pre-Degree course from Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam. He then received his graduate degree in mechanical engineering from Thangal Kunju Musaliar College of Engineering, Kollam, and a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, with a specialization in dynamics and control. He was awarded a Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras).
The Central Government has re-appointed Shri Anand Gopal Mahindra as part-time, Non-official Director on the Central Board of Reserve Bank of India for a period of four years with effect from August 20, 2026, or until further orders, whichever is earlier.
Anand Gopal Mahindra is an Indian billionaire businessman, and the chairman of Mahindra Group, a Mumbai-based business conglomerate. The group operates in aerospace, agribusiness, aftermarket, automotive, components, construction equipment, defence, energy, farm equipment, finance and insurance, industrial equipment, information technology, leisure and hospitality, logistics, real estate and retail. Mahindra is the grandson of Jagdish Chandra Mahindra, co-founder of Mahindra & Mahindra.
