Eminent economist, consultant and banker Urjit Patel, the new Governor of the Reserve Bank of India

New Delhi, August 20: Eminent economist, consultant and banker Urjit Patel was on Saturday appointed new Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. Patel will replace Raghuram Rajan, a former International Monetary Fund chief economist who stunned financial markets in June by announcing he would step down in September and return to academia after a single three-year term at the RBI.

The tenure of the present governor Raghuram Rajan is ending on September 4, reports indianexpress.com.

The appointment has been made on the recommendation of the Financial Sector Regulatory Appointment Search Committee (FSRASC) headed by Cabinet Secretary.

The committee undertook an extensive exercise to suggest a panel of names to the appointment committee of cabinet (ACC).

One of the RBI’s four deputy governors, Patel, 52, was reappointed in January for another three years. He has run the central bank’s monetary policy department since 2013.

Seen as a close lieutenant to Rajan, Patel headed a committee that introduced landmark changes including a switch to inflation-targeting and adopting consumer prices as the new benchmark instead of wholesale prices. The changes he helped drive are considered to be among the most significant monetary policy reforms since India opened up its economy in 1991.

Patel, born on October 28, 1963, received his doctorate in economics from Yale University in 1990) and M Phil from Oxford (1986). 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.

Photo courtesy: Express photo.