Dr Urjit R Patel has been appointed as the new Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) by the Government on Saturday. He will replace the present RBI Governor Dr Raghuram Govind Rajan and take charge on 4th September, 2016 for a period of three years.
Dr Patel is presently the Deputy Governor of RBI and is holding this assignment since January 2013. Patel has been known as ‘inflation warrior’ of Rajan and will be the eighth Deputy Governor to be made Governor at RBI.
Dr Raghuram G Rajan had announced in June that he would step down in September and return to academia after a single three-year term at the RBI.
“The Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) has approved the appointment of Dr Urjit R Patel as Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a period of three years w.e.f. 04.09.2016,” a press note said.
Prior to his appointment as the Deputy Governor, he was with the Boston Consulting Group as an advisor on Energy and Infrastructure.
Patel, 52, headed a panel that recommended landmark changes to monetary policy in India, including a switch to inflation-targeting and the creation of a panel to set interest rates.
Like Rajan, the 52-year-old Patel is a Ph. D. in Economics from Yale University and an M. Phil. from Oxford University in 1986 and B.Sc. (Economics) from University of London in 1984. He has been a non-resident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution since 2009.
Dr Patel was with International Monetary Fund (IMF) between 1990 and 1995 and worked on the U.S., India, Bahamas and Myanmar desks.
During 1996-97, he was sent on deputation by the IMF to the RBI, where he provided his inputs on the development of the debt market, banking sector reforms, pension fund reforms, real exchange rate targeting and evolution of the foreign exchange market.
He was also a consultant to the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance between 1998 and 2001.
Between 2000 and 2004, Dr Patel worked closely with several Central and State government high-level committees on a variety of issues, including direct taxes, competition matters, infrastructure, telecom, civil aviation reforms, power, and defence, to name a few.
Dr Patel has also been worked with several companies, including Reliance Industries where he was president of business development, Infrastructure Development Finance Company Limited (IDFC) and as executive director, and member of the board, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Limited.
Patel joined the central bank on January 11, 2013, months before Raghuram Rajan took charge as the governor, and had been heading the monetary policy department.
