After a lot of speculation, finally, the word is out that Dr. Urjit Patel will be replacing Dr. Raghuram Rajan as the governor of India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India from the 4th of September when Rajan’s term will be ending and he will go back to where he belongs, academia.
Of course, this appointment makes a lot of sense because it will be one of Rajan’s own men who will be carrying on with the legacy of his ideas. Currently, he is the deputy governor of RBI where he looks after one of the most important departments, the monetary policy committee.
Dr. Urjit Patel has obtained his BA from the London School of Economics, MPhil from Oxford University and his Ph.D. from Yale University. He has worked with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after his Ph.D. and had worked with the RBI in the 90s. He was also working with the Government of India in the Department of Economic affairs in the late 90s. He has also worked with the management consulting firms, The Boston Consulting Group as an advisor and has had a stint with Reliance Industries.
One cannot help but notice the similarity of his career with that of Raghuram Rajan’s. Rajan was also working with the IMF, had worked with the Government of India as the Chief Economic Advisor and is an advisor with another management consulting firm, Strategy&.
With India on the cusp of a revolution, it is extremely important that the high growth that we all are anticipating brings high inflation as well. Inflation is important but inflation needs to be tamed. Everyone agrees that deflation is extremely unpleasant in an economy and healthy rates of inflation help the economy. The appointment of Dr. Patel is a sure sign that the RBI is again in very good hands and that he is more than capable of handling one of the most important tasks in India.
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