Reserve Bank of India Gets A New Governor

The Union Government has appointed Urijit Patel, age 53, as the 24th Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a period of three years. Mr. Patel, presently the Deputy Governor in charge of Monetary Policy, will assume office on September 5, 2016. He will also be one among the few governors – after Manmohan Singh and Raghuram Rajan – to be appointed to the top post from outside the IAS circle.

The main challenges before the new Governor would be to continue the iron grip on inflation, help banks strengthen their balance sheets and bring in regulations that will ensure the stability of the financial system.

Mr. Patel has been a key figure in framing the monetary-policy framework that set food price inflation as the target for tackling inflation rather than focus on whole sale price inflation, which gave more weight-age to industrial production.

A flashback into his life shows that Mr. Patel studied extensively abroad at the London School of Economics and Oxford University before heading to Yale for his economics doctorate.

In the public sector, he was also involved with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and has also spent time in the private sector with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Indian energy conglomerate Reliance Industries.

Yo! Vizag wishes all the best to Mr. Patel on his new role as the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.