Rajiv Kumar is a former IAS officer. A 1984- batch IAS officer, he served as the Finance Secretary of India. His tenure saw a number of significant financial sector reforms.
FinTech BizNews Service
Mumbai, 29 June 2026: Shri Rajiv Kumar has been named as part time chairman and additional independent director of the HDFC Bank. The Board of Directors of HDFC Bank today named Shri Rajiv Kumar as a part time chairman for 3 years, subject to the RBI’s approval.
Rajiv Kumar is a former IAS officer. A 1984- batch IAS officer, he earlier served as the Finance Secretary of India. His tenure saw a number of significant financial sector reforms.
Rajiv Kumar was the Finance Secretary of India from August 2019 to February 2020, heading the Department of Financial Services (DFS) from September 2017 to February 2020.
During his tenure as Finance Secretary, he led crucial public sector bank reforms and the consolidation of 27 public sector banks into 12 entities.
Following his retirement from civil services, Rajiv Kumar served as the Chief Election Commissioner of India from 2022 to 2025. Shri Rajiv Kumar had joined ECI as Election Commissioner on September 1st, 2020 and assumed charge as the 25th Chief Election Commissioner of India on May 15, 2022. Shri Kumar championed technology-driven electoral reforms to enhance efficiency, transparency, and accessibility. Under his leadership, ERONET 2.0, managing largest electoral databases, strengthened voter roll management with multi-layered security, seamless, and real-time application processing. Shri Kumar also established mechanisms to tackle the challenge of misinformation and fake news on social media platforms. A myth vs reality register was launched during Lok Sabha Elections 2024.
His tenure spanning 4.5 years in the Commission was characterized by silent yet deep-rooted reforms across various domains spanning structural, technological, capacity development, communication, international cooperation and administration. Shri Kumar during his tenure completed one full electoral cycle with conduct of elections in 31 States/UTs, the Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections 2022, Lok Sabha elections 2024 and Rajya Sabha renewals -a rare and monumental feat in electoral management. The elections were conducted peacefully with near zero repolls and incidents of violence.
