Ananth Narayanan, regional head of financial markets for Asean and South Asia at Standard Chartered Bank, said, “The appointment of Urijit Patel as the next governor signals the continuity of the inflation targeting strategy of the Reserve Bank of India”.
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Incidentally, it was a Saturday when Rajan surprised everyone on June 18 about his decision against a second term, while the announcement for Patel’s appointment also came on a Saturday. (Economics) from Yale University, and M. Phil from Oxford (1986), was with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) between 1990 and 1995, where he worked on the US, India, Bahamas and Myanmar desks.
Mr Patel, 52, headed a panel that recommended landmark changes to monetary policy in India, including a switch to inflation-targeting and the creation of a panel to set interest rates. In fact, it has often been said that Patel has been Rajan’s lieutenant in combating inflation at the central bank. “The government can not afford a radical change, but the thing of priority for them would be inflation, because inflation is showing its ugly head again at 6.05 percent in the last round”.
So far as in his tenure at RBI, he has largely kept away from other fora of public speaking – something the incumbent Governor Rajan loved doing and earned flak for.
So, even if the appointment takes time, the MPC can continue the work with regard to setting up interest rate to meet the inflation target fixed by the government.
Traders expect Patel to keep the repo rate on hold at the RBI’s next policy review on October 4 after inflation accelerated to 6.07 percent in July, above the RBI’s near-term target of 5 percent.
Bhattacharya was one among the seven names speculated to succeed Rajan as the 24th Governor.
From a rating perspective, he said, policies are more important than personalities.
It is interesting to note that he joined International Monetary Fund as a Kenyan citizen.
C Rangarajan opened up the markets, YV Reddy strengthened forex reserves and Rajan tied the government in a legal knot with the RBI and historically instituted the Monetary Policy Committee.
Patel worked closely with several central and state government committees – especially those on direct taxes, market studies, anti-trust laws, Prime Minister’s Task Force on Infrastructure and sectors like telecom, aviation, power and pensions.
Dr Patel also has corporate experience under this belt.
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Was also a consultant in India’s Finance Ministry, in the Department of Economic Affairs, and an advisor at The Boston Consulting Group.
