Urjit Patel becomes 24th RBI governor
Q. Who is the 8th deputy governor to become governor at RBI?- Published on 22 Aug 16a. Raghuram Rajan
b. Urjit Patel
c. R. Gandhi
d. None of the above
ANSWER: Urjit Patel
Urjit Patel is the 8th Deputy Governor to become Governor at RBI and the sixth with an experience in the IMF.
- 52-year-old Patel was appointed RBI Governor for three years and will take charge when Rajan leaves office on September 4
- He was in the IMF between 1990 and 1995 during which he worked on IS, India and Myanmar as well as Bahamas desks.
- He was also on deputation from IMF to RBI before becoming a consultant to the ministry of finance.
- Patel will be the 24th governor of RBI.
- Patel was known as the inflation warrior during his tenure in Mint Street as IMF Chief Economist.
- The last deputy governor of RBI made its governor was YV Reddy.
- 5 former governors have served IMF before becoming RBI chief
- Some deputy governors served as governors only for interim periods.
- Second governor James Taylor who was in office from 1937 to 1943 was the first to serve as Deputy Governor before being made the RBI chief.
- CD Deshmukh was also a Deputy Governor before he became a governor on the demise of his predecessor.
- KG Ambegaokar, another deputy governor, was appointed as interim governor for one and half months till HR Iyengar could take over.
- BN Adarkar also a deputy held the post till S Jagannath could take over.
- YV Reddy also had a six year tenure as a deputy governor and served as India’s ED at IMF before becoming RBI Governor in 2003.
- Other contenders for the post which went to Patel include former RBI deputy governors Rakesh Mohan, Subir Gokarna, Vice Chairman NITI AAYog Arvind Panagariya and SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya.
- Patel led a committee in 2014 suggesting RBI adopt formal inflation targeting methods and come up with a monetary policy committee to take interest rate decisions to achieve inflation targets.
- Government agreed to both conditions adopting a 4 percent long term inflation target (+/- 2%) and formed a six member committee comprising three nominees from the government and RBI in which Governor would have casting vote.
- Patel has also had stints in Reliance Industries and Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC).
