Urjit Patel Named New RBI Governor

Urjit Patel has been named as the new RBI Governor and succeeds Raghuram Rajan, whose term expires in early Sept.

"52-year-old Patel, who was today appointed RBI Governor for a tenure of three years and would take charge after Rajan demits office on September 4, was with IMF between 1990 and 1995, during which he worked on the US, India, Bahamas and Myanmar desks," a PTI report states.

Raghuram Rajan had recenetly decided not to accept a second term as the Governor. Rajan was a known inflation hawk.

It would be interesting to see what steps Patel takes to tame inflation, which has been rising for the last two months.

Patel is the eighth Deputy Governor at RBI to be made Governor, the last being Y V Reddy. Besides, at least five former Governors had served at IMF before becoming RBI chief, while a few others went on to work at IMF after leaving the central bank. However, some deputy governors served as governors only for interim periods.

With inputs from PTI