PATEL-LD PROFILE 2 LAST

Besides controlling inflation, which has breached 6 per Besides controlling inflation, which has breached 6 percent target, Patel will face another important task ofcarrying forward the clean-up exercise at banks, particularlythose in the public sector. Besides, he may see a new breed ofplayers coming up in the banking sector, including with full-fledged banking licenses as well as in niche segments. So far as in his tenure at RBI, he has largely kept awayfrom other fora of public speaking — something the incumbentGovernor Rajan loved doing and earned flak for. Being the brain behind the inflation-targeting framework,some quarters say it is fair to assume that Patel willcontinue with the RBI’s focus on managing inflation, which hascome under criticism from several quarters because of highrates. In a June 2016 note, Japanese brokerage Nomura hadclassified Patel as the only one among the seven speculatedsuccessors under the "hawk" category. "As a deputy governor in charge of Monetary Policy,Patel’s (possible) appointment would imply continuity of thepresent monetary policy. He is generally perceived as morehawkish," its economists had said. Even though past governors have had difficulty whileworking with the government and the finance ministry to beprecise, the Gujarati-speaking Patel’s relationship with NewDelhi is a subject open for discussions and will be keenlywatched. Interestingly, amid government talk of not getting fixedto a single fiscal deficit number and having a target, theNomura note described Patel as a "fiscally conservative"person. "He is also fiscally conservative, as has argued in thepast that the government’s medium-term fiscal consolidationand rebalanced expenditure policy (away from revenue andtowards capex) should support disinflation," the brokerage hadnoted. Patel was also a Consultant (1998-2001) to the Ministryof Finance, Department of Economic Affairs, New Delhi. Between 2000 and 2004, he worked with several central andstate government high level committees, such as, Task Force onDirect Taxes and Group of Ministers on Telecom Matters. Patel has also had an association with the country’slargest corporate Reliance Industries as president of itsbusiness development, the then non-banking lender IDFC, andGujarat State Petroleum Corporation where he was a boardmember. In 1996-97, he had nearly two years of association withthe RBI, when he was sent on deputation from the IMF (where heworked during 1990-95) to advice on development of the debtmarket, banking sector reforms, pension fund reforms, realexchange rate targeting and evolution of the forex market. This was followed by a three-year stint as a consultantwith the Department of Economic Affairs in the FinanceMinistry. PTI AA BENBJ