Gopalakrishnan appointed first chairperson of RBIH

Mumbai: Senapathy (Kris) Gopalakrishnan, co-founder and former co-Chairman, Infosys, has been appointed as the first Chairperson of the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub.

In August, the central bank had announced that it will set up the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) to promote innovation across the financial sector by leveraging on technology and creating an environment that would facilitate and foster innovation.

"The Reserve Bank has appointed Senapathy (Kris) Gopalakrishnan, co-founder and former co-Chairman, Infosys, as the first Chairperson of the RBIH," RBI said in a statement on Tuesday. Gopalakrishnan is currently the Chief Mentor of Start-up Village, an incubation hub for start-ups. RBIH would be guided and managed by a governing council led by a Chairperson, the central bank said.

Other members of the governing council are CEO (to be appointed), Ashok Jhunjhunwala (Institute Professor, IIT, Madras), H Krishnamurthy (Principal Research Scientist, IISc, Bengaluru), Gopal Srinivasan (CMD, TVS Capital Funds), A P Hota (Former CEO, NPCI), Mrutyunjay Mahapatra (Former CMD, Syndicate Bank), T Rabi Sankar (Executive Director, RBI), Deepak Kumar (CGM, Department of Information Technology, RBI), and K Nikhila (Director, Institute for Development & Research in Banking Technology, Hyderabad).

The RBIH shall create an eco-system that would focus on promoting access to financial services and products, RBI said, and added "this will also promote financial inclusion". The Hub will collaborate with financial sector institutions, technology industry and academic institutions and coordinate efforts for exchange of ideas and development of prototypes related to financial innovations. It would develop internal infrastructure to promote fintech research and facilitate engagement with innovators and start-ups.