Urjit Patel, the Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), is expected to take the place of Raghuram Rajan when he vacates his post on September 4, 2016. With this ascent, Patel will become the twenty-fourth person to become the Governor of India’s Central Banking Institution. The 52-year-old Patel joined RBI on January 11, 2013 as a Deputy Governor. He was awarded a second term in January 2016. In his capacity as a Deputy Governor, Patel has led the RBI panel created to come up with a report on monetary policy. It was this report that formed the foundation on which the present reforms at RBI are instituted.
Forming the basis of Monetary Policy Committee
The report handed over by the Patel Committee also laid the foundations for Monetary Policy Committee that has done away with many powers hitherto enjoyed by RBI as well as its governor. The committee has also envisaged the creation of an agency for managing public debt. Under the leadership of this new committee, the national government will determine an inflation target. Both RBI and its governor will be expected to achieve that. In case the target remains unachieved, then the RBI governor will have to answer the parliament.
Previous roles
Patel has previously served as an Advisor (Energy & Infrastructure) to The Boston Consulting Group. He is an alumnus of Yale University, from where he has a Ph.D. in economics in 1990. He did his M.Phil in 1986 from Oxford University. From 2009, he has served in the role of Senior Fellow – in a non-residential capacity – at The Brookings Institution. From 1990 to 1995, Patel had worked at International Monetary Fund (IMF), operating from desks of countries such as the US, Myanmar, and Bahamas, apart from India. IMF had deputed him to RBI from 1996 to 1997.
In that capacity he provided suggestions on a number of areas related to Indian economy such as the following:
- development of debt market
- real exchange rate targeting
- banking sector reforms
- evolution of the foreign exchange market
- pension fund reforms
From 1998 to 2001, Patel has also served as a consultant to Indian Government’s Ministry of Finance, Department of Economic Affairs. Following are some roles that he has served in previously:
- President (Business Development) of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)
- Member of Integrated Energy Policy Committee (from 2004 to 2006)
- Executive Director and Member of the Management Committee of Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC) from 1997 to 2006
- Member of the Board, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Ltd.
From 2000 to 2004, Patel has associated closely with a number of high level committees at both central and state levels. Some of them may be mentioned as below:
- Task Force on Direct Taxes, Finance Ministry
- Committee on Civil Aviation Reforms
- Advisory Committee (on Research Projects and Market Studies), Competition Commission of India
- Ministry of Power’s Expert Group on State Electricity Boards and High Level Expert Group for Reviewing the Civil & Defence Services Pension System
- Secretariat for Prime Minister’s Task Force on Infrastructure, Group of Ministers on Telecom Matters.
Patel has also written a number of technical publications and papers in areas such as the following:
- Indian macroeconomics
- financial intermediation
- public finance
- international trade
- infrastructure
- economics of climate change
