JOIN USWidely known as ‘inflation warrior’, Urjit Patel, who is all set to take over as the new Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has a task out — continue to keep a check on inflation.
The appointment of Patel, 52, who is a close lieutenant of the outgoing RBI chief Raghuram Rajan, in a way signals a continuity of the policies of the apex bank. Patel, one of the RBI’s four deputy governors, looked after monetary policy department since 2013. Like Rajan, he too had a wide international exposure in academia and policy-making.
Prior to his appointment as the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank in 2013, Patel was Advisor (Energy & Infrastructure), The Boston Consulting Group. Born on October 28, 1963, Patel is a Ph D (Economics) from Yale University (1990) and M Phil from Oxford (1986). He has been a non-resident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution, since 2009.
Patel was with 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 RBI 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. He was a Consultant (1998-2001) to the Ministry of Finance, Department of Economic Affairs, New Delhi.
Some of his previous assignments include, President (Business Development), Reliance Industries, Executive Director and Member of the Management Committee, Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC) (1997-2006), Member of the Integrated Energy Policy Committee of the Government of India (2004-2006), and Member of the Board, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation.
Between 2000 and 2004, Patel worked closely with several central and state government high level committees, such as, Task Force on Direct Taxes, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, 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 intermediation, international trade and the economics of climate change.