Student asks Sanjay Malhotra how to become RBI Governor — he responds with Steve Jobs reference, says karma and...

In an interaction with RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra on the sidelines of the VKRV Rao Memorial Lecture at the Delhi School of Economics, a student asked Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das a seemingly simple question: How does one become the governor of the central bank?

Das, offering a life lesson rather than a career roadmap and recalling that he had once been asked the same question at his alma mater, IIT Kanpur, said:

“So I was asked the same question when I went to my own alma mater, IIT Kanpur. And so I said that, you know, this is something that you can't actually predict going forward. So do your karma. And as Steve Jobs said, the dots will connect only when you look backwards… going forward, you'll not be able to."


"Don't look at the results. Do your karma, do your work. Do it with passion. Do it with hard work. The dots will connect.”

The exchange set the stage for a wide-ranging discussion, during which the governor fielded questions on the rupee, inflation targeting, liquidity operations, and regulatory philosophy.

Sanjay Malhotra, a 1990-batch Rajasthan cadre IAS officer, served as Secretary (Revenue) in the Ministry of Finance before assuming this role. Prior to that, he was the Secretary of the Department of Financial Services.