New Delhi: Opting for talent within, the government on Saturday named economist and banker Urjit R. Patel the next Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to succeed Raghuram R. Rajan.
Patel, 52, a Deputy Governor since January 2013, will take over as the 24th chief of India’s central bank on September 4.
He 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. Patel, 52, headed a panel that recommended landmark changes to monetary policy in India, including a switch to inflation-targeting and the creation of a panel to set interest rates. He will start his three-year term on September 4.
“The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved the appointment of Dr. Urjit R. Patel as Governor, Reserve Bank of India for a period of three years,” said the statement from the government.
Patel, who has a doctorate from Yale, had widely been seen as ensuring the most continuity among the candidates believed to be in the running to be the next governor. He had been reappointed in January for another three years as deputy governor in charge of monetary policy, a department he has run since 2013.
Seen as a close lieutenant to Dr Rajan, Patel will now get to implement the policies he had helped shape.
