RBI has appointed ex-Infosys co-chairperson and co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan as the first chairperson of the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH). RBI established Reserve Bank Innovation Hub to promote innovation across the financial sector by leveraging on technology and creating an environment which would facilitate and foster innovation.

RBI in a statement said, “The Reserve Bank has appointed Senapathy (Kris) Gopalakrishnan, co-founder and former co-Chairman, Infosys, as the first Chairperson of the RBIH”. Kris is currently the Chief Mentor of Startup Village, an incubation hub for startups.

RBIH would be guided and managed by a Governing Council led by a Chairperson. RBI added, “The RBIH shall create an ecosystem that would focus on promoting access to financial services and products. 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 startups”.

The other members of the Governing Council are Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Institute Professor, IIT Madras; Prof. H. Krishnamurthy, Principal Research Scientist, IISc, Bengaluru, Gopal Srinivasan, CMD, TVS Capital Funds; A.P. Hota, Former CEO, National Payments Corporation of India; Mrutyunjay Mahapatra, Former CMD, Syndicate Bank; T. Rabi Sankar, Executive Director, RBI (ex-officio); Deepak Kumar, CGM, Department of Information Technology, RBI (ex-officio); and K. Nikhila, Director, Institute for Development & Research in Banking Technology, Hyderabad (ex-officio).