Urjit Patel: RBI’s Inflation Warrior with corporate background

Mumbai, Aug 20 (PTI) An economist by profession, UrjitPatel has his task cut out as the next RBI Governor — to keepinflation under check without hurting growth — but he willhave to do that without being seen as an interest rate hawk, atitle incumbent Raghuram Rajan had to carry unwillingly. While Rajan’s exit has been seen in many quarters asdriven by his often candid views against various policies ofthe government, Patel’s appointment as the 24th RBI Governormay end up ensuring continuity of the monetary policy of thecurrent Governor. Ironically, Rajan will be succeeded by a Deputy who wenton to be known as his ‘inflation warrior’ for steering one ofthe biggest reforms carried out by the RBI in recent historyby changing its face to an inflation-targetting central bank. 52-year-old Patel headed a committee on Monetary PolicyReforms that suggested a medium-term target on inflation and aglide-path to achieve the number. It was this report that ledto the signing of an agreement on inflation targeting betweenthe government and the central bank on February 20, 2015. When he assumes charge as RBI Governor after Rajan demitsoffice on September 4, Patel will have an inflation target of4 per cent for March 2018, with a legroom of two percentagepoints on either side, which has been since notified by thegovernment as per his own recommendations. Patel, who was made Deputy Governor in January 2013, willalso be among the few RBI Governors to have had a corporatebackground as most of the occupants of the top post at MintStreet were either career bureaucrats or economists withacademic institutions. A soft-spoken person of Gujarati origin who has kept alow profile throughout his term at RBI, Patel was first givena three year term as Deputy Governor and got an extension thisJanuary. He has been heard rarely in the media and analystconferences, barring a few media interviews, though his namehas been doing the rounds as the next RBI Governor ever sinceRajan made the surprise announcement in June that he would notopt for the second term. Like Rajan, Patel also worked with International MonetaryFund before coming to India — first at the Finance Ministryand then at RBI. He also served as Advisor (Energy and Infrastructure)with the Boston Consulting Group. Some of his previous assignments include, President(Business Development) at Reliance Industries Ltd, ExecutiveDirector and Member of the Management Committee at IDFC andDirector at Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Ltd. Born on October 28, 1963, Patel is a PhD (Economics) fromYale University (1990) and M Phil from Oxford (1986). He hasbeen a non resident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institutionsince 2009. He was with International Monetary Fund (IMF) between1990 and 1995 and worked on the US, India, Bahamas and Myanmardesks. He was on deputation (1996-1997) from the IMF to RBI.(MORE) PTI AA BEN BJABK