Nachiket Mor's second term on the central board of the Reserve Bank of India ( RBI ) was cut short by the government earlier this month, two people familiar with the information said. Mor had been re-nominated by the government in August 2017 for a second term of four years.He had also been appointed as a member of the eastern area local board of the RBI, a position that he retains, said the people cited above.“He had completed just a year of his four-year term. He was brought for a second stint because of his expertise in banking areas,” said one of the persons cited, above. “But he used to speak up (and) was not exactly the darling of bureaucrats, which could be a reason why his term was cut short.”His removal from the central board was communicated on September 20. The RBI website has not yet been updated to reflect this.Mor declined to comment. An RBI spokesperson did not respond to queries.A former executive director at ICICI Bank , Mor was first appointed to the RBI board in May 2013. He’s also country director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a nonprofit organisation that works in the areas of health, sanitation, financial services and agricultural development.The RSS-affiliated Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding the Mor’s removal from the RBI board on the grounds of conflict of interest because of his association with Gates Foundation. RBI has oversight over funding for NGOs coming from overseas, SJM co-convener Ashwani Mahajan had said. He also questioned the foundation’s work.However, it could not be verified if this had anything to do with Mor’s ouster.“If this was the reason, then they would not have allowed him to continue even on the eastern board,” said the person cited above.In August, the government had appointed SJM convenor S Gurumurthy to the RBI board.Mor is a former executive director of ICICI Bank and also headed the RBI committee on financial inclusion . He is considered an expert in rural financing and headed that business at ICICI.