New Delhi: Opting for talent within, the government on Saturday named economist and banker Urjit R. Patel the next Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Patel ‘s appointment who is a Ph.D in economics from Yale and M.Phil from Oxford was clinched on Thursday at a meeting between Prime Minister Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the sources said.
He was particularly picked for his expertise in inflation-control, which has become the main task of the central bank, ever since the government, under statute, set it a target of 4 percent, plus or minus two percentage points, based on consumer price index.
Patel, whose experience includes a mix of stints with multilateral institutions, bureaucracy, central bank, global consultancies and even private companies, has previously served the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the US, India, Bahamas and Myanmar.
