Urjit Patel: The New RBI Governor

RBI has announced, Urjit Patel as the governor of the Reserve Bank of India. Presently, he is one of the four deputy governors at the RBI. He became the deputy governor in 2013 to replace Subir Gokarn. After that in 2016, he was reappointed for another three years.

He has run the central bank's monetary policy department since 2013 and has worked closely with the Raghuram Rajan during his stint at the central bank.

Let’s have a look at the Profile of the new Governor of RBI:

He is a PhD (economics) from Yale University (1990) and MPhil from Oxford (1986).

Prior to his appointment as the deputy governor at the RBI, he was:

1. Advisor (energy & infrastructure), The Boston Consulting Group. 

2. Non-resident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution since 2009.

3. Was with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), where he worked on the US, India, Bahamas and Myanmar desks.

4. Was on deputation from the IMF to the RBI.

5. Also served the government in various positions during the NDA-I regime. 

6. Served as a consultant to the ministry of finance, department of economic affairs, New Delhi.

Apart from these, his other assignments include, President (Business Development), Reliance Industries; executive director and member of the management committee, IDFC; member of the Integrated Energy Policy Committee of the Government of India; and member of the Board, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Ltd, the RBI site said.

Between 2000 and 2004, Patel has worked closely with several Central and state government high-level committees such as, Task Force on Direct Taxes, Union Ministry of Finance; Advisory Committee (on Research Projects and Market Studies), Competition Commission of India; secretariat for the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Infrastructure; Group of Ministers on Telecom Matters; Committee on Civil Aviation Reforms; Ministry of Power’s Expert Group on State Electricity Boards and High Level Expert Group for Reviewing the Civil & Defence Services Pension System, Government of India.

Patel has authored technical publications, papers and comments in the areas of Indian macroeconomics, public finance, infrastructure, financial inter-mediation, international trade and the economics of climate change.

Inflation Fighter

During his tenure at the RBI, Patel was seen as a close lieutenant to Rajan. He headed a committee that introduced landmark changes in the monetary policy formulation of the central bank.

The changes he helped drive are considered to be among the most significant monetary policy reforms since India opened up its economy in 1991.