Urjit R Patel has been appointed as the new Reserve Bank of India governor. The appointments committee of cabinet has approved the recommendation. Patel is currently the deputy governor of RBI and looks after the monetary policy, economic policy research and other duties.
Patel, born on October 28, 1963, received his doctorate in economics from Yale University in 1990) and M Phil from Oxford (1986). He was first appointed as Deputy Governor for three years in January 2013 and was given an extension this January. Prior to his appointment as the Deputy Governor at RBI in 2013, Patel was advisor (Energy and Infrastructure) with Boston Consulting Group, while he has also worked with Reliance Industries in the past. He has worked with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) between 1990 and 1995 covering the US, India, Bahamas and Myanmar desks. He will be the eighth Deputy Governor to be made Governor at RBI.
Patel's appointment will come into effect from September 4 when the incumbent governor Raghuram Rajan's term ends. Speculations about Rajan's successor were doing the rounds for the past few weeks. Apart from Patel, former Deputy Governor Subir Gokarn, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian, NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya, former RBI Deputy Governor Rakesh Mohan, SBI Chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya and Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das were in contention for the post.
Rajan's term ends on September 4, after he surprised everyone with a letter to RBI staff announcing his decision to return to academics and not be available for a second term.
(With agency inputs)
