Urjit Patel appointed as 24th Governor of RBI

Union Government has appointed Urjit Patel (52) as new Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI). He will be 24th Governor of RBI
He will have tenure of three years and shall succeed Raghuram Rajan. Prior to this appointment (elevation) he was Deputy Governor of RBI. He will be the eighth Deputy Governor to be elevated as Governor at RBI.
Background
The Appointment Committee of Cabinet (ACC) has appointed Urjit Patel based on the recommendation of the Financial Sector Regulatory Appointments Search Committee (FSRASC), headed by the Cabinet Secretary. The Committee undertook an extensive exercise to suggest a panel of names to the ACC.

About Urjit Patel

• Born on October 28, 1963. He had received his doctorate in economics from Yale University in 1990) and M Phil from Oxford (1986).
• By profession he is an eminent economist, consultant and banker. He has two decades of rich experience across sectors including financial, energy and infrastructure sectors.
• He has worked with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) covering the US, India, Bahamas and Myanmar desks between 1990 and 1995.
• For first time, he was appointed as the Deputy Governor of RBI in January 2013 for three year term and was later reappointed on January 2016.
• He had headed committee to review the monetary policy framework and had proposed monetary policy committee to set interest rates (currently solely decided by the RBI governor).
• It also had recommended targeting consumer inflation to control volatile prices by shifting the current focus away from wholesale prices.
• Besides, he also had worked closely with several union and state government committees especially those on market studies, direct taxes, anti-trust laws, Prime Minister’s Task Force on Infrastructure and sectors like telecom, aviation, power and pensions.

Note: The RBI is central bank of India. It regulates banks, prints money and prevents volatility in the foreign exchange market. It is also the government’s banker and lender of last resort.

Month: Current Affairs - August, 2016