Urjit Patel appointed 24th RBI Governor

"The appointment has been made based on the recommendation of FSRASC, headed by the Cabinet Secretary. The Committee undertook an extensive exercise to suggest a panel of names to the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC)," a statement from the ACC said

Sitting deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Urjit Patel will take over as the 24th RBI Governor, the Centre announced on Saturday.

Putting an end to the speculations on who will succeed incumbent Raghuram Rajan, the Centre made it clear that Patel will take over the position in the first week of September.

“The appointment has been made based on the recommendation of the Financial Sector Regulatory Appointments Search Committee (FSRASC), headed by the Cabinet Secretary. The Committee undertook an extensive exercise to suggest a panel of names to the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC),” a statement from the ACC said.

Patel, 52, joined RBI as Deputy Governor on January 11, 2013, and was given a second term in January.

As deputy governor, Patel headed the RBI panel to draft the monetary policy report, which became the basis of the ongoing reforms at the apex bank.

The Patel committee report also formed the basis of the monetary policy committee, which takes away a lot of powers of RBI and the governor, as also move to create a public debt management agency.

Under the independent monetary policy committee, which is being set up, the government will set an inflation target to RBI and the governor will be made answerable to Parliament if he/she fails to contain inflation within target.

Prior to his appointment as the deputy governor, Patel was Advisor (Energy & Infrastructure), The Boston Consulting Group.

He is a Ph.D. (Economics) from Yale University (1990) and M Phil from Oxford (1986) and has been a non-resident Senior Fellow at the The Brookings Institution since 2009.

Patel was with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) between 1990 and 1995, and worked on the US, India, Bahamas and Myanmar desks.

He was on deputation (1996-1997) from the IMF to the Reserve Bank of India and provided advice on development of the debt market, banking sector reforms, pension fund reforms, real exchange rate targeting and evolution of the foreign exchange market.

Patel was also a Consultant (1998-2001) to the Ministry of Finance, Department of Economic Affairs, New Delhi.